On January 29, 2025, CPDCS, joined by Mass. Peace Action, hosted a webinar about South Korean President Yoon’s attempted coup and its implications, with Francis Daehoon Lee of Peace MOMO in Seoul and the journalist Tim Schorrock here in the U.S.
As Francis reported, the situation is much more fluid and dangerous in Seoul – including the possibility of a far-right coup that is understood in the U.S. In addition to providing excellent background on the ROKs political history, Tim pointed to the danger of South Korea and Japan becoming nuclear weapons states following President Trump’s declaration that North Korea is a nuclear weapons state and should Trump and Kim Jung-un negotiate a transactional agreement with little concern for South Korea’s and Japan’s security needs.
Francis Daehoon Lee of PEACEMOMO in Seoul has been research professor for peace studies at SungKongHoe University. He served as legal advisor to the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Sub-commission. He was the former executive director of ARENA (Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives, Asia-wide) and worked with several other NGOs in Korea and Asia.
Tim Shorrock is a journalist and writer based in Washington, DC. He grew up in Japan and South Korea during the Cold War and has been writing about the US military role in Asia since the late 1970s. In 2015 he was given an honorary citizenship by the city of Gwangju for his reporting on the secret background role played by the US government and military in the events surrounding the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea and the imposition of martial law. He was a correspondent for The Nation magazine and the author of SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Intelligence