German envoy calls for deeper ties in defense, climate
'To enable this shift, Germany passed a constitutional amendment — approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament — allowing greater borrowing flexibility through two special funds totaling an estimated 500 billion euros ($538 billion),' said German Ambassador Georg Schmidt at the Global Business Forum held Wednesday evening in Seoul. The event was organized by The Korea Herald and Herald Business.
One of the new funds is dedicated to defense and security, covering cyber defense, civilian protection and aid to Ukraine. The other targets infrastructure and climate-related transformation, including 100 billion euros earmarked for sustainable projects.
'This is more than just meeting NATO's goal of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. It's about fundamentally rethinking our approach to security,' Schmidt said.
He noted that the shift reflects broader geopolitical concerns — particularly growing uncertainty over US security commitments to Europe and escalating threats from Russia, which he said has effectively transformed into a wartime economy, with around 60 percent of its national expenditures now devoted to military purposes.
Schmidt emphasized that these developments are relevant not only to Europe, but also to countries like Korea. 'Germany's firm support for Ukraine sends a message not only to Russia, but also to North Korea,' he said.
Schmidt highlighted Korea's formal defense and security partnership with the European Union, saying it opens the door to future cooperation in emerging security technologies.
At the weekly forum, Kim Yong-sub, founder of Trend Hitchhiking and an independent business insight provider, also spoke about how shifting social values among younger generations are reshaping consumer behavior in Korea.
'We're now seeing more consumers — particularly those in their 20s and 30s — who no longer view marriage, homeownership or having children as essential life goals,' Kim said. 'Instead, they seek meaning through personal hobbies, pet ownership, solo travel or simply choosing to remain single.'
He added that this shift is already reshaping Korea's economic landscape, with declining demand for products targeting traditional nuclear families and rising sales in sectors like home fitness, pet care, wellness and single-person appliances.
'Companies that continue to target a lifestyle that fewer people aspire to will struggle to stay relevant,' he said.
Next, Chae Sang-wook, CEO of Connected Ground and host of the real estate YouTube channel Chaebushim, provided a macroeconomic perspective on the broader implications of Korea's record-low fertility rate of 0.75 birth in a woman's lifetime.
'This isn't just a social issue. Fewer births mean a smaller domestic market and shrinking GDP (gross domestic product),' Chae said.
He added that housing market trends already reflect this shift: While the top 20 percent of apartments in Seoul have recovered or surpassed 2021 price levels, the majority remain below prepandemic prices — especially when adjusted for inflation and the Korean won's depreciation against the US dollar.
Beyond demographics and consumption trends, Chae emphasized the importance of strategic asset planning in an increasingly volatile global environment.
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Korea Herald
19 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Trump begins planning for Putin-Zelenskyy meeting while affirming US help with security guarantees
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he's begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a pathway to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while affirming that the US would back European security guarantees aimed at preventing Moscow from reinvading its neighbor once the current conflict ends. Details of the security guarantees and Trump's efforts to arrange peace talks were still evolving as an extended meeting among Trump, Zelenskyy and other European leaders wrapped up at the White House. But as they emerged from their talks, the leaders expressed guarded optimism that Trump could be finding momentum in his quest to fulfill his campaign promise of ending the grinding war. The 'most important' outcome of the meeting was the 'US commitment to work with us on providing security guarantees,' French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters. Trump said he would forge ahead with arrangements for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin. He spoke by phone with Putin during Monday's talks with Zelenskyy and the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Germany and Italy as well as the president of the European Commission and head of NATO. The developments come amid a significant measure of trepidation on the continent that Trump is pressing Ukraine to make concessions that will only further embolden Putin after the US leader hosted the Russian president for an Alaska summit last week. 'I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,' Trump said in a social media post. 'After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.' It was not clear if Putin has fully signed on to such talks. Russia state news agency Tass cited Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov saying Putin and Trump 'spoke in favor' of continuing direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations. Ushakov said they also discussed 'the idea of raising the level of the direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.' Zelenskyy told reporters following the White House meeting that if Russia does 'not demonstrate a will to meet, then we will ask the United States to act accordingly.' NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in an appearance on Fox News that 'if Russia is not playing ball' on direct talks with Ukraine, 'the United States plus Europe will do more when it comes to tariffs and sanctions' on Moscow. Zelenskyy previously had said he wanted Russia to agree to a ceasefire before any meeting between himself and Putin, but he said Monday that if the Ukrainians started setting conditions, the Russians would do the same. 'That's why I believe that we must meet without any conditions, and think about what development there can be of this path to the end of war,' Zelenskyy said. Earlier, Trump said during talks with Zelenskyy and the European leaders that a potential ceasefire and who gets Ukrainian territory seized by Russia should be hashed out during a face-to-face meeting between the warring countries' two leaders. 'We're going to let the president go over and talk to the president and we'll see how that works out,' Trump said. That was a shift from comments Trump made soon after meeting Putin last week in which he appeared to tilt toward Putin's demands that Ukraine make concessions over land seized by Russia, which now controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. Trump stopped short of committing US troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine's security. He said instead that there would be a 'NATO-like' security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU leaders. Zelenskyy said deep US involvement in the emerging security guarantees is crucial. 'It is important that the United States make a clear signal, namely that they will be among the countries that will help to coordinate and also will participate in security guarantees for Ukraine,' Zelenskyy said. Speaking Monday before the White House meetings took place, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova rejected the idea of a possible NATO peacekeeping force in Ukraine. She said such a scenario could lead to further escalation and 'unpredictable consequences." Trump's engagement with Zelenskyy had a strikingly different feel to their last Oval Office meeting in February. It was a disastrous moment that led to Trump abruptly ending talks with the Ukrainian delegation, and temporarily pausing some aid for Kyiv, after he and Vice President JD Vance complained that Zelenskyy had shown insufficient gratitude for US military assistance. At the start of Monday's meeting, Zelenskyy presented a letter from his wife, Olena Zelenska, for Trump's wife, Melania. Zelenskyy faced criticism during his February meeting from a conservative journalist for appearing in the Oval Office in a long-sleeve T-shirt. This time he appeared in a dark jacket and buttoned shirt. Zelenskyy has said his typically less formal attire since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 is to show solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers. European leaders arrived in Washington looking to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow. Ahead of Monday's meeting, Trump suggested that Ukraine could not regain Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, setting off an armed conflict that led to its broader 2022 invasion. Zelenskyy in his own post late Sunday, responded, 'We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably.' He said 'peace must be lasting,' not as it was after Russia seized Crimea and part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine eight years ago and 'Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.' European leaders suggested forging a temporary ceasefire is not off the table. Following his meeting with Putin on Friday, Trump dropped his demand for an immediate ceasefire and said he would look to secure a final peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine — a sudden shift to a position favored by Putin. German and French leaders on Monday praised Trump for opening a path to peace, but they urged the US president to push Russia for an immediate ceasefire. 'I would like to see a ceasefire from the next meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting," said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump, for his part, reiterated that a broader, war-ending peace agreement between the two countries is 'very attainable," but 'all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.'
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Zelenskyy warns against 'rewarding' Russia after Trump urges concessions
WASHINGTON -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with Donald Trump on Monday that Russia should not be "rewarded" for its invasion, after the US leader pressed Ukraine to make concessions in exchange for peace. The talks, in which European leaders will also take part, follows a Friday summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska that failed to produce a ceasefire in the nearly three-and-a-half-year war. Trump, who dropped his insistence on a ceasefire in favor of a final peace deal after meeting Putin, said Sunday that Zelenskyy could end the war "almost immediately, if he wants to" but that, for Ukraine, there was "no getting back" Crimea and "NO GOING INTO NATO." Kyiv and European leaders have warned against making political and territorial concessions to Russia, whose assault on Ukraine since February 2022 has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. "Russia should not be rewarded for its participation in this war.... And it is Moscow that must hear the word: Stop," Zelenskyy said in a Facebook post early Monday. Trump and Zelenskyy are expected to meet one-on-one before being joined by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, according to the White House. The European leaders will also hold a preparatory meeting with Zelenskyy ahead of talks with Trump, the European Union said. Ahead of Monday's meeting, China called for "all parties" to agree to peace "as soon as possible." It will be the first visit by Zelenskyy to Washington since a February bust-up with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, when the two men berated the Ukrainian leader for being "ungrateful." Russia kept up its attacks on Ukraine ahead of the new talks, firing at least 140 drones and four ballistic missiles at the country between late Sunday and early Monday, the Ukrainian air force said. A Russian drone attack on a five-storey apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv just before dawn killed at least seven people, including a one-and-a-half year old girl, authorities said. Zelenskyy called the strikes an attempt to "humiliate diplomatic efforts." Ukrainian shelling attacks in the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Donetsk regions meanwhile killed two people, Moscow-installed authorities said. Russia currently occupies a fifth of Ukraine. It annexed Crimea in 2014 following a referendum denounced as a sham by Kyiv and the West, and did the same in 2022 in four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia -- even though its forces have not fully captured them. Russia controls Crimea and is largely in control of the Lugansk region, but not the other three regions. Russia has suggested it might "freeze" the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in exchange for getting control of land not already captured in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. A source briefed on a phone call between Trump and European leaders on Saturday told AFP that the US leader was "inclined to support" this proposal. But Zelenskyy has repeatedly shot down the notion of ceding territory to Moscow, and says he is constitutionally bound not to give away Crimea. Yevgeniy Sosnovsky, a photographer from the captured Ukrainian city of Mariupol, said he "cannot understand" how Ukraine would cede land already under its control. "Ukraine cannot give up any territories, not even those occupied by Russia," he told AFP. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had made "some concessions" on territory, and that there was an "important discussion with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there." "That discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday," he told CNN, without giving details. Washington has not placed extra sanctions on Moscow, and the lavish welcome offered to Putin in Alaska on his first visit to the West since he invaded Ukraine in 2022 was seen as a diplomatic coup for Russia. But Trump has raised the possibility of a collective defense guarantee for Ukraine similar to the one in place for NATO members, once the war is over. The promise would be outside of the framework of the Western military alliance that Ukraine wants to join and which is seen as an existential threat by Russia. Speaking in Brussels on the eve of his visit to the United States, Zelenskyy said he was keen to hear more about what Putin and Trump discussed in Alaska.
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Korea Herald
12,000 Koreans sue ex-President Yoon, wife over martial law
First lawsuit filed to jointly hold Yoon, Kim accountable for alleged abuse of emergency powers More than 12,000 South Koreans are filing a damages suit against former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, claiming they suffered psychologically from Yoon's controversial declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. This is the first lawsuit to name both Yoon and Kim as co-defendants over the incident. More plaintiffs are expected to join the case. Attorney Kim Kyoung-ho, representing the plaintiffs, said he submitted the complaint to the Seoul Central District Court on Monday. Each plaintiff is demanding 100,000 won ($72) in compensation for emotional distress. Kim, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, told The Korea Herald in a phone interview that the people's psychological distress stems from the fear and disillusionment caused by what they see as illegal seizure of state power. 'By unlawfully declaring martial law and paralyzing the functions of the National Assembly, the defendants instilled in people the fear that South Korea was veering toward dictatorship,' he said. Kim explained that the situation evoked memories of the unlawful martial law imposed under Chun Doo-hwan in 1980, triggering public anxiety and trauma. 'But the damage was not only retrospective,' he added. 'The Dec. 3 martial law undermined the very democracy built through the Candlelight Revolution that ousted Park Geun-hye (in 2017), shattering the dignity and self-respect of democratic citizens." In their filing, the plaintiffs argue that Yoon's declaration of martial law was not merely a matter of negligence, but a 'deliberate and unlawful act' that violated the people's constitutional rights. They claim the move was driven by personal motives, particularly to block the passage of a special counsel bill to investigate Kim Keon Hee over alleged stock manipulation and luxury gift scandals, as well as to cover up evidence related to election meddling involving Myung Tae-kyun. The lawsuit further accuses the former first lady of playing an active role, asserting that she pressured her husband to impose martial law as a way to deflect scrutiny and communicated with alleged co-conspirators. 'Kim Keon Hee served as an instigator by persistently demanding a way out of her legal troubles, which led Yoon to take the extreme step of declaring martial law,' the filing states. The mass suit comes after the Seoul Central District Court last month ruled in favor of 104 plaintiffs in a separate damages case, ordering Yoon to pay 100,000 won per person for emotional harm caused by the martial law declaration. Yoon has appealed the ruling, seeking to suspend enforcement. The court granted a stay of execution on the condition that Yoon post deposits equivalent to the damages.
