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Other Nuclear Nations

India (1974) and Pakistan (1998) are also well-established members of the nuclear club but are not party to the NPT since they believe its terms are discriminatory. Israel does not formally acknowledge the existence of its program. Former nuclear nations include South Africa (program dismantled in 1989) and Ukraine (nuclear weapons removed following collapse of the USSR).


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Interpreting Kim Jong-un's Statement on the 'Hostile Two-State Relationship' Regarding Inter-Korean Relations

  *South and North Beyond the Fence of the Demilitarized Zone.  @iStock   Il Young Jeong Research Professor_Institute of Social Science_Sogang University Kim Jong-un's statement on the 'hostile two-state relationship' regarding inter-Korean relations is causing controversy. Starting from the end of last year, Kim Jong-un's remarks on the "hostile two states" have shaken not only the academic community but also the political sphere and civil society in South Korea. The unfortunate aspect is that some experts have hastily defined the 'two-state system' on the Korean Peninsula as an irreversible reality and begun to seek alternatives. I believe that we must be cautious of hasty judgments because Kim Jong-un's "hostile two states" argument differs from the process of discourse formation previously shown by North Korea. In this context, I intend to analyze Kim Jong-un's two-state theory and argue that his discourse remains incomplete. Kim ...

Defector Group Chats

For the skeptics, I will share a more concrete example. Group chats play a pivotal role in connecting North Korean defectors living in different Chinese rural villages. Many of these women are unable to leave their neighborhoods or even houses, but the digital space fostered in these group chats has created a sense of community for isolated, vulnerable defectors. Moreover, these women live in high-surveillance environments (by their Chinese families and the local police), demonstrating that these digital spaces are possible and constructive even under restrictive conditions. Read one example here .

Making Peaceful Coexistence Work on the Korean Peninsula

  * The joint presidential briefing by the Ministry of Unification, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of National Defense for the second half of 2026 is being held at the Blue House on August 5, 2026. © Blue House Il Young Jeong Senior Research Fellow_Institute of Social Science_Sogang University On August 5, the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of National Defense jointly presented their policy reports to President Lee Jae-myung for the second half of 2026. Traditionally, presidential policy briefings have been held only once at the beginning of the year. The Lee government, however, added a summer briefing as a midterm assessment of its policies. The occasion also served as an opportunity to evaluate and adjust the government’s policies toward the Korean Peninsula over the past year. In this column, I will examine the Lee Jae-myung government’s policy of peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, identify its key challenges, an...