South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Fumio Kishida of Japan.
Kiyoshi Otal/Getty Images
Critics of the South Korean leader accuse him of eroding democracy at home while embracing a historic enemy on the international stage.
EPA-EFE/KCNA
The two countries watch each other’s policy shifts very carefully and respond accordingly.
Bjørn Christian Tørrissen
The Arch of Reunification has been destroyed – reversing decades of government policy targeting eventual reunification with the South.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on a screen at the Seoul Railway Station on Aug. 24, 2023.
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Amid signs of growing domestic disquiet over his repressive regime, North Korea’s leader is trying to deflect scrutiny by upping war rhetoric.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, Kim Jong Un and his daughter visit a factory that produces rocket launchers.
Associated Press/Alamy
Kim Jong-un is continuing to release statements about a possible military conflict with South Korea.
An aging population, a tired economy.
Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images
South Korea’s fertility rate fell below the level needed to sustain a population in the mid-1980s – and it never recovered. It is now below one child per woman during her reproductive years.
American Pie: South Korean president indulges in a spot of karaoke after a White House dinner, April 2023.
EPA-EFE/Oliver Contreras/pool
The US and South Korea are significantly beefing up security arrangements in the face of the perceived growing threat from China and North Korea.
South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol is only the second leader to travel to the U.S. for a state visit during the Biden administration.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The ‘Washington Declaration’ unveiled during the state visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol gives Seoul a greater role in coordinating a nuclear response strategy.
The 2018 Pyongyang Joint Declaration, signed between then South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, may be suspended over North Korean missile testing.
EPA-EFE/Yonhap
North Korea’s provocative regime of missile testing has prompted the South to designate it as an enemy.
Ahn Young-joon/AP/AAP
While there is still risk associated with any escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula, this is far from uncharted territory.
Kim Jong Un remains focused on reunifying Korea – on his terms.
Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images
A recent barrage of nuclear-capable missile tests and a change in law setting out the conditions for a nuclear strike show that North Korea’s leader is intent on reunification on his terms.
Prayer ribbons attached to a barbed wire fence near the border between North and South Korea.
Shutterstock/UnknownLatitude Images
A defecting North Korean gymnast recently went back after struggling to make a new life for himself.
Repression running in the genes?
Jenni Lim/AFP via Getty Images
Kim Jong Un has followed his father and grandfather in ruling by fear. The coronavirus pandemic has made North Korea ever more isolated, while expanded military capabilities make it a growing threat.
North Korea’s testing of two long-range cruise missiles was a provocative act – but a predictable one, too.
Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
North Korea has tended to ratchet up tensions when the U.S. is seen to be weak and when it feels it can yield greater concessions, a scholar explains.
AAP/EPA/Yonhap
With signs North Korea has suffered in the coronavirus pandemic and is now facing a further threat to its shaky economy, the ratcheted up of tension with the South is ominous.
Border-crossing lovers.
Netflix
A cross-border love story set on the Korean peninsula is the most popular television drama in South Korean history.
An employee watches a bank of TV’s broadcasting a news report on a Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2019.
Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
Without its communist Soviet-style economy, North Korea would just be South Korea.
As the US-North Korea summit comes to an abrupt end, denuclearisation is a fantasy that is leaving Washington as the odd man out on the Korean Peninsula.
AAP/KCNA
Any meaningful breakthrough in the relationship between the US and North Korea is once again stalled by the insistence on denuclearisation.
The detente between North and South Korea continues, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) pushing on regardless of the United States.
AAP/EPA/Pyongyang Press Corps / Pool
The Pyongyang Declaration between the two Koreas is about much more than nuclear power – and leaves the US on the outer.
EPA/Franck Robichon
Living as a woman in North Korea can be psychologically and physically gruelling.