Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea

This article is by Woo Ji-won and read by an artificial voice.

[AMBASSADOR'S TABLE - RESTAURANT REVIEW]

Type a name of almost any restaurant into a search engine today and a flood of blog posts and reviews appears, even for places that opened only weeks ago.

Search for classic French restaurant Chez Laurent, however, and almost nothing turns up.

"I asked Naver to remove my restaurant from its webpage," said owner Laurent Min. Naver is Korea's largest search engine.

He wanted the place to be only for diners who truly appreciate French cuisine, its dining culture and the atmosphere Min has carefully curated — rather than those who simply stumble upon it while browsing for somewhere to eat.

And for those who arrive with that intention, the restaurant offers more than just good French food. It provides an experience that closely mirrors dining in France.

Pâté de Campagne au Cognac makes a good first impression. Made from minced pork and chicken liver, the pâté is served cold. It breaks apart easily in the mouth — smooth, salty yet also tangy, a unique flavor for a meat dish. The strong seasoning stems from its origins, as pâté was created in France as a way to preserve older cuts of meat for long-term storage.

Accompanying the cold meat is a salad of frisée and parsley with a shallot vinaigrette dressing, along with sour cornichons. Paired altogether with a baguette, the flavors balance neatly.

Dipped into with bread, the sauce seeps into the plain baguette, amplifying its richness. A dish that once disappointed when tasted in France feels redeemed here.

Beyond the celebration of its dishes, the service leaves just as lasting an impression. Min checks on customers promptly, makes sure forks and knives are properly placed and frequently replaces side dishes. Though tipping is not customary in Korea, he would have easily earned generous tips.

This level of service reflects Min's background. After going to France at 14 to learn French, he entered a vocational high school specializing in the culinary arts and chose to pursue front-of-house service. Since then, he has worked for some 20 years in French cuisine at various restaurants and hotels.

The Papillote de Cabillaud arrives wrapped in paper. Once opened, a fragrant burst of lemon, herbs and freshly pressed olive oil rises into the air.

The mild dish, served with a separate small bowl of rice, features baked cod alongside 10 kinds of vegetables — cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic and bell pepper among them. The fish is incredibly tender. In France, it is the kind of simple home-cooked meal mothers prepare with ease.

"We used fresh olive oil pressed last year, which probably gave it more aroma," said chef Park Young-mi.

Cassoulet Maison, a specialty associated with the Toulouse region of France, traces its roots to times of war, when preserved meats and available ingredients were simmered together into a hearty, restorative dish.

The duck and sausage are so tender they easily break apart with a spoon. While they have a fairly strong salty flavor, the beans that are simmered together help balance and soften the dish. This relatively rare dish in Korea gives a sense that French cusine is much more than just butter-rich classics.

The portions here are generous, guided by the chef's philosophy that no one should leave hungry.

Min and Park also discuss the menu extensively, with the goal of finding the balance where it "tastes delicious to Koreans, yet does not feel bland to French diners."

Instead of the typical vanilla base, the chef made it chocolate-based for winter, giving it a deeper weight, while in-season strawberries keep it fresh. The softness of the cream and the crisp cracking of the pastry pair well, finishing the meal on just the right sweet note.

"A restaurant exists because of its customers. I wanted to remember these regulars because, to me, they are more precious than superstars," he said.

Located at 11, Noksapyeong-daero 32-gil in Yongsan District, the restau...

This article is by Seo Ji-eun and read by an artificial voice.

Seoul's ambassadors are often gastronomes keen to share a taste of their home cuisine. In this series, the Korea JoongAng Daily asks the diplomatic corps to introduce our readers to their favorite restaurants representing cuisine from their homelands, while chatting about issues of interest to our Korean and global audience. — Ed.

For French Ambassador Philippe Bertoux, an avid hiker who enjoys exploring South Korea's mountains, the longstanding bond between Seoul and Paris is much like a long hike with a trusted friend that grows more intimate with every step.

"It has been a 140-year hike," Bertoux said during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at a restaurant in Seoul on Feb. 12.

He said the current status of the relationship is like "when you stop during a walk, and you have a view," and "see the achievements we have reached together, like nuclear power plants and the KTX."

However, for Bertoux, the focus is as much on the partnership as it is on the goal.

"A session of summits is awaiting us — but it's not necessarily the destination [that matters the most] but how [we] live the journey together and how supportive we are [of one another,]" he added. "Building on what we have achieved in this 140-year walk, there is great potential to conquer new summits in the future."

This year marks the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties, and the momentum is palpable.

The crown jewel of this milestone is the anticipated state visit by President Emmanuel Macron this spring, the first by a French president to South Korea in 11 years.

Other highlights during the yearlong celebration range from the grand opening of the Centre Pompidou Hanwha Seoul to the first-ever "Avignon outside of Avignon" theater festival in South Korea, all aimed at elevating the bilateral relationship to a Global Strategic Partnership.

To discuss the ambitious road map, the ambassador, representing a nation renowned for its cuisine, chose a setting that feels like a slice of home: Chez Laurent, an authentic French bistro tucked away in the heart of Itaewon, central Seoul.

"The time used for a conversation around a good meal is never wasted time; it's a way to go beyond speaking points and truly connect," he said.

Below are excerpts from the interview edited for length and clarity.

As for cultural events, we have cooperated with more than 100 partners for the whole year. We will celebrate this across the board — it's not going to be focused only on culture, but also on military, political, business and human exchanges.

Highlights include the official launch with a concert at the Bucheon Arts Center on March 7. The conductor is French, Adrien Perruchon, and the orchestra is Korean.

Another major highlight will be the opening of Centre Pompidou Hanwha Seoul in late May or early June. It will feature top exhibitions from the Pompidou collections.

For the first time, there will be an 'Avignon outside of Avignon' in South Korea in Autumn, and the Fête de la Musique in June with concerts and DJ workshops.

France will be the 'Guest of Honor' for the International Book Fair this year. We have a large French pavilion every year because many French books are translated into Korean.

Please check our website and social media regularly for more.

As for the timing, it will take place in spring. We feel the moment is right, and we are working hard to ensure this visit is meaningful.

The goal is to enhance our partnership to a Global Strategic Partnership. This means more exchange on political issues, more cooperation on military issues and intelligence. We want to be prepared for future crises and work together to defend the international order, the rule of law and peace. The keyword for this visit will be 'Innovation.'

You are an avid hiker. If you were to describe the 140-year relationship as a mountain trail, where are we right now?

It has been a long 140-year hike. When you hike with friends for that l...

This article is by Lee Jae-lim and read by an artificial voice.

[EXPLAINER]

In the absence of headline-grabbing hardware changes, the upcoming Galaxy S26 series is poised to become a key test of Samsung's chip capabilities as its own chipset will be fitted into the new model for a certain markets.

The decision reflects a bid at redemption for Samsung, after the in-house Exynos processor has been sidelined over Qualcomm's Snapdragon in its premium smartphones because of underwhelming performance and heat management problems.

The stellar sales record of its predecessor, Galaxy S25, only add to pressure on the electronics giant, since many widely linked its performance to Qualcomm's Snapdragon-powered processing gains.

Since 2020, Samsung has faced criticism over some Exynos-powered devices running hotter and draining battery faster than Snapdragon-equipped versions. Over time, Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips became the preferred option for many users.

Despite pessimistic consumer response in the past, Samsung has returned to the dual chipset strategy. The base and Plus models will likely feature either the Exynos 2600 or Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 depending on the region, while the Ultra variant will likely run entirely on Snapdragon.

Why is the success of Galaxy S26 so critical for Samsung?

If the Galaxy S26 models powered by Exynos 2600 perform well, it would be a big win — not just for Samsung's smartphone business, but for its entire chip business divisions from chip design to foundry manufacturing business.

Right now, Samsung's mobile division buys high-end processors from Qualcomm, and those chips are getting more expensive. At the same time, AI-driven demand is tightening supply across the semiconductor industry, pushing up component prices as memory bottleneck deepens, fueling more chip shortage for system chips as well. The Korean company spent 10.93 trillion won ($7.56 billion) on application processors (AP) during the first three quarters of last year, according to the company's latest quarterly financial report, already matching its total spending for all of 2024. Over the same nine-month period, costs jumped 25.5 percent year-on-year from 8.71 trillion won recorded in the first three quarters of 2024.

If Samsung can successfully use more of its own Exynos chips, the money paid out to Qualcomm can instead stay within the company, flowing between its chip design arm, System LSI, its foundry unit and its smartphone division. In simple terms, Samsung would be paying itself, not an outside supplier.

"Rising component costs — including memory prices — have weighed on margins at the smartphone and networks divisions, and the earnings gap between business units is expected to widen further throughout 2026," observed Son In-jun, an analyst at Heungkuk Securities.

Even though the Exynos 2600 will be shipped globally, Snapdragon-powered models are still expected to account for a larger share of the Galaxy S26 lineup.

Heungkuk Securities forecasts the smartphone division's operating profit margin to fall to 4 percent in 2026, down six percentage points from last year. Margins stood at 10 percent in 2025, supported by unusually strong sales of the Galaxy S25 series.

According to Counterpoint Research, global sales of the S25 reached 4.5 million units in October 2025 alone, which matched the peak sales seen during the first two months after immediate launch.

What drove the popularity remains unclear, but one noticeable factor is that the S25 lineup used Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chips across all models, yet Samsung kept prices in line with the previous S24 series.

That strategy, however, may not be sustainable. As chip prices continue to rise, relying entirely on Qualcomm becomes more costly, which is why Exynos 2600 matters so much now.

If the S26 proves that Samsung's in-house chip can match Snapdragon in performance, efficiency and heat management, it opens the door to greater independence and importantly, better margins.

I...

Shin Kyung-jin

The author is the Beijing bureau chief of the JoongAng Ilbo.

It will be one month tomorrow since Zhang Youxia, the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and long regarded as the No. 2 figure in China's military hierarchy, was purged. Despite the intense scrutiny from global media, Beijing has remained calm, even as two figures from the 105-year history of the Chinese Communist Party have been thrust back into the spotlight.

The first is Lin Biao (1907-1971), China's second minister of national defense, who is frequently cited by foreign media. Fourteen years younger than Mao Zedong (1893–1976), Lin was once Mao's officially designated successor. The preamble to the party constitution, ratified at the Ninth Party Congress in 1969, described him as "Comrade Mao Zedong's close comrade-in-arms and successor." Just two years later, on Sept. 13, 1971, Lin died in a plane crash in Mongolia alongside his wife and son. The charge announced posthumously was "attempted seizure of power."

The second figure is Zhang Guotao (1897–1979). On Feb. 9, the People's Liberation Army Daily wrote that "during the Long March, Zhang Guotao split and threatened the activities of the Party and the Red Army. Comrade Zhu De stated resolutely, 'At the Politburo meeting, I supported the resolution to march north. I cannot reverse that decision. I am a Communist Party member. My duty is to carry out the party's decision.'"

Though less familiar to the general public, Zhang Guotao was a pivotal figure in the early history of the Communist Party. As a student at Peking University, he helped lead the May Fourth Movement in 1919. In July 1921, he attended the founding congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai as the Beijing delegate; Mao participated as the representative from Hunan Province. During the Long March, Zhang commanded the Fourth Front Army, whose forces outnumbered Mao's First Front Army. He did not attend the Zunyi Conference in 1935 and opposed the northward march. Instead, he established a "Second Central" in Sichuan. After clashing with Mao, he defected to the Nationalist government in 1938. The Communist Party subsequently stripped him of his membership.

When the military's official newspaper invoked Zhang Guotao, observers asked whether it was implying that Zhang Youxia had similarly split the party and armed forces and that a "second Zhu De" had resisted and reported him. Earlier, on Jan. 25, the People's Liberation Army Daily accused Zhang Youxia of having "trampled upon" and undermined the Central Military Commission chairman responsibility system.

As the investigation into Zhang lengthened, The Economist spoke of "the return of Pekingology." It revisited a 1971 essay, "On Photographs," by the late Harvard professor Roderick MacFarquhar (1930-2019), a leading scholar of the Chinese Communist Party. The article suggested that within official photographs lie clues — and the right questions — for deciphering power struggles in Beijing.

Zhang Youxia's purge bears similarities to the cases of Zhang Guotao and Lin Biao, yet also differs in important ways. On Feb. 13, the People's Daily published a notice outlining personnel arrangements for next year's Party congress. The curtain has risen once again — noisily — on another drama of power reshuffling.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

This article is by Kim Dong-eun and read by an artificial voice.

Daemyung Hwang

The author is a student at Seoul Beodle Elementary School.

As I waited for the bus, I was using my smartphone to watch YouTubers build Lego tanks.

"Oh, too bad I didn't bring those bricks with me," I thought. "I really want to build that!"

When the bus came, I heard the usual loud vrooming sound and a little squeak as it stopped. Without letting my eyes come unglued from the phone, I started to get on the bus. Before I reached the first step, I suddenly fell forward, my right leg flailing in empty space.

"Help!" I thought. As if someone had heard my thoughts, a hand grasped my arm and pulled me up.

It was my dad, his eyes as wide and fierce as a hurricane.

After I found a seat on the bus, I started to think about my phone. It sucked up all my attention. While using it, I totally forgot about everything else.

If my father hadn't been there, I would have fallen face-first onto the asphalt. It made me wonder: Should kids really own a smartphone?

About a year later, I was looking at my phone while waiting for my mom to pick me up after class. After calling her, I changed my phone's wallpaper because I was bored. Still fumbling and pressing buttons, I heard a car approaching and noticed a bright yellowish light out of the corner of my eye. But I didn't look up from my phone. I kept pressing buttons. Finally, I heard the unmistakable sound of my mom calling my name, and it hit me — I was keeping her waiting! Sorry, mom!

Here's another incident: When I came home from school one day, I began to prepare an experiment for science class. First, I needed to fill a jar with water. After I turned on the faucet, my phone buzzed. I received the call and it lasted for one minute. As I ended the call, I noticed the familiar sound of rushing water, and then noticed it had spilled all over the bathroom floor. My phone had played its distraction trick once again.

Plenty of others have the same problem. While walking through the park, I notice people looking at their phones instead of the beautiful scenery. I see kids riding bikes, focused on their phones instead of the people around them. One time, I even saw a woman in our apartment complex trip over a rock as she stared at her phone.

While riding my football academy bus, I had a question for my friend and tapped him on the shoulder. He continued playing a game on his phone where he bashed trees with a chainsaw. I poked him again, but he didn't respond. It seemed that he couldn't even hear my voice. "Hello? Hello?" He was completely frozen and mindless, like a zombie in a horror movie, or a student under the paralysis curse from Harry Potter.

After noticing these things, I made a goal of using my phone only for necessary calls or for playing an educational game to learn new vocabulary. I now keep my phone inside my backpack and turn it off when not in use. Instead of more screen time, I play board games, read books or watch the world around me.

In particular, I like to look for sports cars. I once saw a Ferrari in the parking lot of a sushi restaurant, its blue body gleaming in the light. On another occasion, there was an evergreen Aston Martin outside my English academy, its chassis only a few centimeters from the ground. The rarest sports car I've seen in my life was a Lamborghini Revuelto. The aerodynamic orange body looked like a cheetah with wheels.

When I pay attention to the world and see cars like this, I feel alive and excited. I'm instantly in a better mood. On a phone screen, you don't really see these cars. You don't notice the texture or the bright energy, and you can't appreciate the true size. The real world doesn't fit inside our phones.

Park Moon-soo

The author is the chairman of Future & Values and the director of the Korea Peace-making foundation.

Housing, at its core, is not a financial instrument but a place where people live. Yet Korea's housing market, shaped by chronic supply shortages, has long been infused with speculative impulses. The result has been the normalization of residential insecurity. The gap between those who own homes and those who do not has widened, and "where one lives" has come to determine not only the quality of life but also access to education, jobs and future opportunities.

This reality weighs most heavily on the young. Amid soaring jeonse — Korea's unique lump-sum deposit lease system — and monthly rents, and in an environment defined by instability, even moving out has become a difficult choice for many young adults. Marriage and childbirth have been pushed further down the list — often off it entirely. "I'm postponing marriage because I don't own a home" is no longer an excuse; it is a commonplace confession. At a time when merely keeping up with housing costs feels overwhelming, the youth employment rate fell in January to its lowest level in five years. For many young people, starting a family has become not a matter of choice but of impossibility.

Housing insecurity does not merely strain individual lives; it erodes society's future. As more couples abandon marriage and childbirth, low birthrates and demographic distortions deepen, with the burden passed on to the next generation. In a society that treats housing as a private asset issue, it is difficult to imagine a sustainable future. Residential instability is no longer a personal problem but a structural one. It is time to reset the starting point of housing policy.

Above all, housing must not serve as a vehicle for speculation. Shelter is inseparable from the basic conditions of life and cannot be left solely to market logic. Yet for years we have allowed housing to function as a tool of asset accumulation, and the resulting wealth gap between homeowners and non-homeowners has metastasized into generational conflict. A policy framework centered on actual residence — not investment — must be firmly established. Across the board, policy should make clear that housing is the foundation of stable living, not a means of financial gain.

The method of supply also demands a fundamental shift. Quantity alone does not solve the problem. The critical question is where homes are built. Supply must be concentrated in areas where genuine demand exists — places dense with jobs, transportation links, schools and daily-life infrastructure. Instead, we have too often racked up supply figures in peripheral districts with relatively weak demand, producing a dual failure: unsold units and vacancies on the one hand, and rising prices in urban cores on the other. A supply policy that ignores demand cannot stabilize the market.

The most significant driver of urban housing shortages lies in excessive regulations and inefficient approval processes surrounding redevelopment and reconstruction. In a reality where projects can take years — sometimes more than a decade — to advance, supply inevitably contracts. Safety and public interest matter, but they must not become pretexts for indefinite delay. When uncertainty and administrative lag become the greatest risks in housing supply, structural reform is imperative. Approval procedures should be clear and streamlined; decision-making should be swift. A bold institutional overhaul is needed.

At the same time, the government must send clear signals to the market. Without predictability about when, where and how much housing will be supplied, anxiety among buyers will only intensify. Developable land should be designated in advance, and presales used to present concrete supply volumes. When medium- and long-term supply plans are transparently disclosed, the market can shed excessive expectations and fears, responding with greater stability. Re...

Seo Seung-wook

The author is the chief editor of digital content at the JoongAng Ilbo.

Jang Dong-hyeok, the leader of the People Power Party (PPP), first won a National Assembly seat in a by-election in June 2022. His career in national politics is not yet four years old.

I first met him at a dinner in October 2024, exactly six months after the PPP, then led by interim chief Han Dong-hoon, suffered a historic defeat in the general election. At the time, Jang was widely seen as Han's right-hand man, serving as the party's senior Supreme Council member. He wore a red knit sweater — the party's signature color — and greeted a stranger with a degree of banter that felt almost excessive. When asked why Han, clearly responsible for the crushing defeat, had returned to the leadership without a period of reflection, Jang replied confidently, "If he intends to run in the next presidential election, it's right for him to come back without delay. I was the one who suggested it."

That "bodyguard of Han Dong-hoon" seized the party's top post himself less than 10 months later. The two are now estranged to the point of open hostility. Martial law, impeachment, the collapse of conservatism and the mobilization of anti-impeachment forces created a political vortex, and Jang rode it to the top — buoyed by conservative YouTubers and an energized hard-line base. It is one of the most dramatic meteoric rises in modern conservative politics.

Now, the words of this "one-and-a-half-term" party leader are steering the conservative camp toward a dead end.

After a lower court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life imprisonment, Jang responded by invoking the "presumption of innocence," arguing that "those who put severing ties with Yoon first are the ones we must decisively sever ties with." Rather than distancing the party from Yoon, he has effectively embraced a "Yoon Again" position, reading out statements that seemed to echo the former president's rhetoric. References to "how to change the election system to protect each precious vote of the people" and other familiar phrases bore unmistakable traces of Yoon's worldview.

Such unconventional moves have prompted varied interpretations. Has Jang already written off victory in the upcoming local elections, seeking instead to consolidate his standing as a hard-line conservative leader? Has he concluded that expanding into the political center is futile and chosen instead to lead the self-styled "patriotic citizens," biding his time for the future? Perhaps he even harbors a hope of political survival — that if the results are close enough to claim a respectable loss, he might retain his post.

Whatever his motive, it is difficult to shake the impression that personal survival has taken precedence over reflection on the future of the conservative community. His shallow political résumé may not be unrelated. Having ascended so swiftly, Jang has little accumulated capital to lose. With neither long-honed political experience nor deep reservoirs of goodwill, he may feel he has little to forfeit. In such circumstances, gambling on an all-or-nothing strategy can seem rational: if it succeeds, he reaps a windfall; if it fails, he has lost little more than he risked.

Jang is not alone in his meteoric rise. Han Dong-hoon, now on the opposite side of him, is not so different. Han was abruptly appointed justice minister by Yoon on the grounds that he held a U.S. law license and spoke fluent English, making him well-suited to modernize the justice system to "global standards." He joined the PPP only at the end of 2023, after being tapped again to serve as interim party chief. His political career is even shorter than Jang's.

Fandom politics and livestream broadcasts may all be fair game in contemporary politics. But Han's camp's insistence on a "true conservatism" narrative raises concerns. Within the conservative ranks, there are many who are not inclined to view Han favorably. How must it feel for t...

Keum Tae Sup

The author is a former lawmaker and prosecutor.

If one were to single out the two most dramatic scenes from the night of the Dec. 3 martial law declaration, they would likely be these: National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik vaulting over the fence of the Assembly compound to pass a resolution lifting martial law, and Democratic Party (DP) spokesperson Ahn Gwi-ryeong grappling with the barrel of a soldier's rifle, trying to hold it back with her bare hands.

Their courage — risking arrest, even their lives, to defend democracy — left a deep impression on many citizens. And yet the images also carried an ominous undertone. A president who had declared martial law on implausible grounds and dispatched troops, confronted by two individuals standing against armed soldiers with nothing but their bodies — the tableau seemed to crystallize a stark contrast between absolute evil and absolute good. For those inclined to divide the world neatly into right and wrong, good and evil, the scene must have felt like a revelation, a vindication of everything they believed.

Even before martial law, we had been witnessing the disappearance of politics. The greatest responsibility lies, of course, with former President Yoon Suk Yeol. His stubborn refusal to recognize the leader of the opposition as a legitimate negotiating partner — declining even to meet him for two years — became the driving force that pushed his adversaries toward increasingly extreme forms of struggle. But the opposition was no less guilty of refusing recognition. From the moment the administration took office, it openly spoke of impeachment, staged candlelight rallies, and, during the general election, chanted, "Three years is too long," at a president whose term is constitutionally guaranteed.

The president exercised his veto power dozens of times against bills passed by the National Assembly, while the opposition repeatedly introduced impeachment motions that, under the Constitution, are meant to serve as a last-resort remedy. In this spiral of vetoes and impeachments, the lives of ordinary citizens inevitably receded from the center of political concern. Correction was needed on both sides.

The reckless declaration of emergency martial law, however, upended this balance in an instant. After witnessing military helicopters landing at the National Assembly and special forces troops descending onto its grounds — in 21st-century Korea — it is no longer possible to say, "The opposition's serial impeachments were also wrong." When a list of politicians to be arrested is discovered in a retired officer's notebook, any attempt at evenhandedness risks being dismissed as a failure to grasp reality. The emergence of what appears to be absolute evil confers upon the other side a kind of unlimited moral immunity.

Those who had been raising their voices for political reform suddenly fell silent. But can this truly be called a victory for the DP or for progressivism?

It is often said that Yoon's declaration of martial law destroyed conservatism. In terms of immediate electoral politics, that is true enough. Lee Jae Myung, the DP leader who had lost the presidential election and was shuttling between investigations and courtrooms, is now president. The People Power Party (PPP) has suffered the humiliation of seeing two of its presidents impeached, becoming an object of ridicule and avoidance. Far from winning local elections, it struggles even to recruit viable candidates for major provincial posts such as Gyeonggi.

Yet progressives, too, have lost their way.

Convinced that their historic mission is the eradication of "insurrection" — the realization of an absolute good — they appear willing, for the sake of convenience, to bend core constitutional principles such as the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary. When Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment, some critics rebuked the court, saying, "The sentence will not be carried out anyway, but for symb...

This article is by Yoon Sung-min and read by an artificial voice.

Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidating reciprocal tariffs, Korea will proceed as planned with $350 billion in investments in the United States.

Wi Sung-lac, national security adviser, and Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, met on Friday with related ministries to discuss pending trade issues, including the investment deal, a senior Blue House official said on Sunday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the reciprocal tariffs imposed worldwide by President Donald Trump last April were unlawful. Trump immediately signed an executive order imposing a new 10 percent tariff, which he later raised to 15 percent. Korea had initially been subject to a 25 percent reciprocal tariff from the United States, which was lowered to 15 percent on the condition that Seoul invest $350 billion in the United States. Some questioned whether the ruling nullified the $350 billion deal.

"From Korea's standpoint, nothing has fundamentally changed," a senior Blue House official said. "Interpreting the Supreme Court ruling to mean that the 25 percent reciprocal tariff has disappeared and that Korea will automatically be subject to a 15 percent tariff or lower is a self-serving interpretation."

"The fact that the United States could raise the tariff back to 25 percent if Korea does not follow through on its investment has not changed," the official added.

Even if reciprocal tariffs are invalidated, other avenues remain for imposing tariffs. The new tariffs imposed by Trump after the Supreme Court ruling fall under Section 122 of the U.S. Trade Act, which allows import restrictions of up to 15 percent for 150 days, and are separate from the reciprocal tariffs. Item-specific tariffs on automobiles and steel also remain in effect, and the possibility of additional tariffs cannot be ruled out.

The investment plan is also linked not only to tariff reductions but to broader diplomatic and security issues, including Korea's introduction of nuclear-powered submarines and uranium enrichment and reprocessing. The Blue House decision thus reflects its understanding that proceeding with the U.S. investment is unavoidable.

The government has already formed a committee to implement the memorandum of understanding for the Strategic Investment to review candidate projects and is accelerating its evaluation process. In the National Assembly, the ruling party plans to push ahead as scheduled with special legislation on U.S. investment, which would provide the legal basis for establishing an investment fund and an investment committee. The bill is slated for a plenary vote on March 5.

However, the Blue House believes tariff-related uncertainty has increased following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, particularly regarding the possibility of higher item-specific tariffs. Even if reciprocal tariffs are nullified, increases in item-specific tariffs could deal a blow to major Korean industries such as automobiles, semiconductors and steel.

The Blue House is scheduled to hold a meeting related to tariffs at 8 p.m. Sunday to further discuss response measures. The meeting will be chaired by Wi and Kim, with Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo in attendance. Democratic Party floor leader Han Byung-do, policy committee chair Han Jeoung-ae and Rep. Jung Tae-ho, secretary of the party's special committee on U.S. investment legislation, will also participate to discuss the handling of the special bill.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

This article is by Seo Ji-eun, Shim Seok-kyong and read by an artificial voice.

Upon opening the ruling Workers' Party's Ninth Congress in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared adamant that the nation's current status — widely interpreted as a de facto nuclear state — will not be rolled back as he declared that "the position of our state was firmly consolidated as an irreversible one."

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that the congress — the country's biggest political event in five years, serving as the top decision-making body that typically sets the governing direction for the next five years — convened the previous day, expected to set policy priorities, including Pyongyang's posture toward Seoul and Washington.

"By successfully carrying out the Party's decisions in all realms such as politics, the economy, national defence, culture and diplomacy, they achieved notable, comprehensive and radical successes, and in the course of this, they substantially increased our country's internal forces," Kim was quoted as saying in the KCNA's English-language report.

Kim did not directly mention strengthening nuclear weapons capabilities or a military alignment with Russia in his opening address. He also avoided naming specific countries, including the United States and South Korea.

Instead, he devoted much of the speech to economic management and an assessment of the performance of party and government organs.

The posture contrasts with the opening speech of the Eighth Party Congress on Jan. 5, 2021, when the leader acknowledged that "almost all sectors fell a long way short of the set objectives."

Pyongyang has grappled with the fallout from the collapse of summit diplomacy following the stalemate with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in 2019, compounded by restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Thursday's speech, Kim revisited that moment, saying, "When we convened the Eighth Party Congress, the subjective and objective conditions of our revolution were literally so harsh that we could hardly maintain our own existence."

"The hostile forces grew more reckless in their schemes for harsh blockade and sanctions against us, and we were also confronted with successive natural calamities and the global public health crisis," he said, while adding, "But today we are here at [the] Ninth Congress, filled with optimism and confidence in the future."

On Saturday, the third day of the congress, Kim announced a "new fighting strategy," a set of guiding rules likely to govern state governance over the next five years, the KCNA reported Sunday.

In a report to the congress that day, Kim "clarified the new fighting strategy corresponding to the strong spirit of advance of the country and the people and their full confidence and specified the prospective goals for all sectors and the tasks and ways for attaining them." His report reviewed the last five years' work and outlined policy directions for the upcoming five years.

The KCNA added that the strategy embodies an "invariable will to put the overall socialist construction on the track of sure prosperity and leaps forward." However, details about the strategy or its text have not been disclosed as of press time.

In a following deliberation on Saturday, the North's Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and Chief Secretary of the Sinpho City Committee of the WPK Jang Kyong Guk participated as speakers, in contrast to previous occasions where dozens of speakers joined.

While the South's media speculated that Choe likely covered the regime's foreign policy, including inter-Korean relations and North-U.S. relations, details of her remarks have not been shared.

Analysts said the repeated emphasis on an "irreversible" position aligns with Pyongyang's long-held refusal to consider denuclearization, while references to a shifting "global political landscape" and "favorable conditions and circumstances" appeared intended to showcase an elevated ...