Corea del Sud

Se una quota crescente dei traffici commerciali tra l’Asia e l’Europa dovesse spostarsi dal Canale di Suez alle rotte artiche, gli equilibri della logistica marittima europea potrebbero cambiare, penalizzando soprattutto i porti del Mediterraneo.

Ora, alla luce della scelta della Corea del Sud di sperimentare la stessa direttrice commerciale, questa rotta artica potrebbe ridisegnare drasticamente gli equilibri della logistica europea. L’ utilizzo della rotta artica da parte della Cina e adesso la nuova sperimentazione della Corea del Sud conferma l’interesse crescente delle potenze asiatiche verso percorsi commerciali alternativi al Canale di Suez. L’obiettivo è ridurre i tempi di navigazione, contenere i costi logistici e diminuire l’esposizione ai rischi geopolitici legati alle tensioni in Medio Oriente e nel Mar Rosso.

Il passaggio attraverso l’Artico può, quindi, consentire di accorciare sensibilmente le distanze tra Asia ed Europa. La scelta a sudcoreana viene supportata dalla possibilità di raggiungere porti del Nord Europa come Rotterdam, Felixstowe e Danzica con un risparmio di circa dieci giorni rispetto ai percorsi tradizionali.

Questa evoluzione apre nuove prospettive commerciali, ma pone interrogativi rilevanti sul futuro della portualità mediterranea.

Se una parte significativa dei traffici asiatici dovesse progressivamente orientarsi verso i porti del Nord Europa, gli scali italiani e francesi potrebbero perdere quote di mercato, con gravi ripercussioni sulle attività di movimentazione delle merci, per i servizi logistici ed ovviamente per occupazione dell’intera filiera.

Nel Veneto, il rischio riguarda anche la competitività delle infrastrutture portuali e intermodali, nonché la capacità del territorio di inserirsi nelle principali catene internazionali di approvvigionamento e distribuzione. Nel nord-est si salverebbe solo il Porto di Trieste in quanto si conferma il principale scalo petrolifero del Mare Mediterraneo e il punto di partenza dell’oleodotto che rifornisce gran parte dell’Europa centrale.

La questione assume pertanto una dimensione che va oltre la semplice scelta della rotta marittima. La crescente collaborazione tra Russia e Cina nello sviluppo dei collegamenti artici contribuisce a modificare gli equilibri commerciali e strategici internazionali. Una conseguenza tra l’altro della miope politica europea che ha spinto la super partenza russa ad alleanze lontane dagli interessi europei, mentre la Corea del Sud dimostra come la diversificazione delle rotte possa diventare uno strumento di tutela delle proprie catene di fornitura.

Per l’Unione Europea, la sfida consiste nel comprendere tempestivamente queste trasformazioni e nel definire una strategia capace di integrare politica industriale, infrastrutture portuali, trasporti ferroviari e intermodalità.

In questa prospettiva emerge una criticità nella capacità europea di elaborare una visione comune di medio e lungo periodo.

Gli interessi dei porti settentrionali, favoriti dalla possibilità di intercettare direttamente i flussi provenienti dall’Artico, non coincidono certamente con quelli degli scali mediterranei, la cui competitività dipende in larga misura dai collegamenti attraverso Suez. La divergenza di interessi potrebbe alimentare una crescente competizione interna, rendendo più difficile l’adozione di politiche condivise a sostegno della logistica continentale. Per l’Italia e, in particolare, per il sistema economico del Veneto, diventa quindi essenziale dimostrarsi in grado di valutare per tempo gli effetti di questi cambiamenti e rafforzare la propria capacità di attrarre traffici, investimenti e attività a valore aggiunto.  Il punto centrale si conferma, quindi, la necessità di una strategia europea che non si limiti a reagire alle trasformazioni del commercio mondiale, ma sappia anticiparle e magari per una volta condizionarle attraverso le proprie scelte strategiche e di politica estera.

La Russia sarà costretta ad adottare misure di ritorsione contro la Corea del Sud se quest’ultima fornirà armi al regime di Kiev. Lo ha dichiarato il viceministro degli Esteri russo Andrej Rudenko in un’intervista all’agenzia “Tass”. “Abbiamo costantemente comunicato alla controparte sudcoreana, attraverso vari canali, la posizione di principio della Russia sull’inammissibilità della partecipazione della Corea del Sud alla fornitura diretta o indiretta di armi letali al regime di Kiev, anche nell’ambito dell’iniziativa Purl. In caso contrario, le relazioni bilaterali tra Russia e Corea del Sud potrebbero essere gravemente danneggiate e saremmo costretti ad adottare misure di ritorsione. Spero che non dovremo ricorrere a tali misure”, ha affermato il viceministro degli Esteri, commentando le notizie secondo cui la Corea del Sud starebbe valutando la possibilità di partecipare al programma Purl (Prioritaised Ukraine Requirements List). “Nel costruire relazioni con Seul, teniamo conto del suo crescente avvicinamento alla Nato in ambito militare, nell’ambito del quale la Corea del Sud fornisce assistenza per il riarmo a diversi Paesi membri dell’Alleanza che a loro volta forniscono assistenza militare all’Ucraina”, ha aggiunto Rudenko.

Il gruppo automobilistico tedesco Volkswagen valuta un possibile ingresso nel settore della produzione militare, con contatti in corso con aziende della difesa, tra cui l’israeliana Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, per la riconversione di uno stabilimento in Germania. Lo ha dichiarato l’amministratore delegato del gruppo, Oliver Blume, intervenendo a un evento organizzato dal quotidiano “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” a Francoforte. L’Ad ha spiegato che “siamo in contatto con diverse aziende della difesa” e che questa opzione “potrebbe essere una soluzione anche per Osnabrueck”. Le dichiarazioni sono state riprese dall’emittente “Al Arabiya”. Secondo quanto riferito dal quotidiano britannico “Financial Times”, Volkswagen sarebbe in trattative con Rafael per convertire parte della produzione verso componenti destinati al sistema di difesa aerea “Iron Dome”.

Il progetto includerebbe l’adattamento di linee industriali attualmente dedicate al settore automobilistico, con un possibile avvio della produzione entro 12-18 mesi, con il sostegno del governo tedesco. L’iniziativa si inserisce in un contesto di crescente integrazione tra industria civile e difesa in Europa, accelerato dall’aumento delle spese militari e dalle tensioni geopolitiche. In questo quadro, gruppi industriali tradizionalmente attivi nel settore civile stanno valutando opportunità di diversificazione verso la produzione dual use o direttamente militare. Fondata nel 1937, Volkswagen rappresenta il principale costruttore automobilistico europeo e uno dei maggiori al mondo. Durante la Seconda guerra mondiale il gruppo fu coinvolto nella produzione di mezzi militari, per poi riconvertire completamente le proprie attività verso il settore civile nel dopoguerra.

La Corea del Sud ha registrato un record assoluto di esportazioni per il mese di gennaio, grazie alla crescita globale dell’intelligenza artificiale, fortemente dipendente dai semiconduttori prodotti nel Paese. Lo indicano i dati ufficiali diffusi oggi dal ministero del Commercio. Il valore complessivo delle esportazioni coreane ha raggiunto 65,8 miliardi di dollari il mese scorso, in aumento del 33,9 per cento su base annua, superando la soglia dei 60 miliardi per la prima volta nel mese di gennaio. Il Paese ospita i principali produttori mondiali di memorie per semiconduttori, diventate un elemento chiave delle infrastrutture per l’intelligenza artificiale. I gruppi tecnologici Samsung e Sk Hynix hanno registrato utili operativi trimestrali record nel periodo ottobre-dicembre. Le esportazioni di semiconduttori sono ammontate a gennaio a 20,5 miliardi di dollari, in crescita del 102,7 per cento su base annua, il secondo miglior dato mensile di sempre dopo il record di 20,8 miliardi registrato il mese precedente. Le esportazioni di automobili sono aumentate del 21,7 per cento a 6 miliardi di dollari, grazie soprattutto alle buone performance dei veicoli ibridi ed elettrici.

I dati arrivano mentre Seul sta cercando di reagire all’annuncio del presidente degli Stati Uniti Donald Trump di un aumento dei dazi sui beni sudcoreani dal 15 al 25 per cento, motivato dalla mancata ratifica parlamentare dell’accordo commerciale. L’intesa, raggiunta nell’ottobre scorso, prevedeva investimenti sudcoreani negli Stati Uniti in cambio della riduzione dei dazi. L’ufficio presidenziale sudcoreano ha sostenuto a novembre che l’accordo non richiede l’approvazione del parlamento, trattandosi di un memorandum d’intesa e non di un atto giuridicamente vincolante. Il ministro sudcoreano del Commercio e dell’Industria Kim Jung-kwan ha incontrato a Washington l’omologo statunitense Howard Lutnick dopo l’annuncio dell’aumento dei dazi ed è rientrato a Seul ieri, senza giungere però a un’intesa con la controparte Usa. “C’è stata una notevole delusione da parte degli Stati Uniti per il fatto che la legge speciale sia ancora ferma all’Assemblea nazionale”, ha spiegato il ministro ai giornalisti, aggiungendo che i colloqui proseguiranno nelle prossime settimane.

There have been several previous cases of North Koreans sailing unintentionally into the South. They often use small, wooden boats that cannot be easily steered back onto their course once adrift.

In the past, authorities in the two countries would co-ordinate to send those who wished to return to the North back via their land border.

However, Pyongyang had cut off all inter-Korea communication lines in April 2023 amid heightened tensions.

Eight months later, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared that unification with the South is no longer possible.

The only known channels of communication that remain are the US-led United Nations Command and through the news media.

Seoul’s Ministry of Unification said it had tried twice to inform the North of its intention to send these six people home via the United Nations Command, but did not receive a response.

North Korean patrol vessels and fishing boats were spotted at the handover point on Wednesday morning, leading some observers to believe the two Koreas would have agreed on a repatriation plan “behind the scenes”.

“If you set a boat adrift in the vast ocean without any co-ordination, there’s a real risk it could drift away again,” says Nam Sung-wook, the former head of the Korea National Strategy Institute think tank.

Nam believes the six people will be interrogated at length when they return to the North.

“They’ll be grilled on whether they received any espionage training or overheard anything sensitive. [It will be] an intense process aimed at extracting every last piece of information,” he tells BBC Korean.

Once the investigation is over, they may be asked to help spread propaganda. Their desire to return to the North “strengthens the legitimacy of [Kim’s] regime”, adds Lim Eul-chul, a professor specialising in North Korean studies in Kyungnam University.

Michael Madden, a North Korea expert from the Stimson Center in Washington, pointed out that the boats drifted south when South Korea was being led by interim presidents following former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment.

“This may have delayed some decision making in both Koreas.

“Pyongyang certainly did not trust the Yoon remnants in South Korea, and both Koreas could have been open to accusations of an unlawful repatriation out of political expedience by the international community,” he said.

Wednesday’s repatriations have left some North Korean defectors baffled.

Activist Lee Min-bok says the six people “should have been given a chance to talk to defectors and learn more about South Korean society”.

“If I’d had the chance to speak with them, I would have told them the truth [about inter-Korean history] and warned them that they could eventually face punishment from the North Korean regime, simply because they had already experienced life in the South,” says Mr Lee, who used to float balloons with anti-Kim leaflets into the North.

However, Mr Lee and other activists are expecting crackdowns from South Korea’s new, pro-engagement administration.

Seoul’s National Assembly is currently debating a bill to ban such balloon launches.

Lee Jae-myung, who was elected South Korea’s president in June, has pledged to restart dialogue with Pyongyang and to reduce tensions between the two countries.

A week after he took office, South Korea’s military suspended its loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border to North Korea – in what it described as a move to “restore trust in inter-Korean relations and achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

Some analysts, however, do not expect a major improvement of ties between the Koreas.

North Korea has “built up solid co-operation” with Russia, and now has “little need” to engage the South, says Celeste Arrington, director of The George Washington University Institute for Korean Studies.

Public opinion in the South also suggests little appetite for engaging with the North, she says.

“Thus, there are few signals, if any, of North Korea wanting to re-establish lines of communication with the South, let alone a desire for meaningful warming of relations.”

South Korean governments committed numerous human rights violations over decades in a controversial programme that sent at least 170,000 children and babies abroad for adoption, a landmark inquiry has found.

It said the government’s lack of oversight enabled the “mass exportation of children” by private agencies that were driven by profit, and found examples of fraud, falsified records and coercion.

Since the 1950s, South Korea has sent more children abroad for adoption than any other country, with most sent to Western countries.

South Korea has sinced moved to tighten its adoption processes, but some adoptees and their biological parents say they are still haunted by what they went through. The BBC spoke to one woman who claimed her adoptive parents “took better care of the dog than they ever did of me”.

“This is a shameful part of our history,” said Park Sun-young, the chairperson of the commission, at a press briefing.

“While many adoptees were fortunate to grow up in loving families, others suffered great hardship and trauma due to flawed adoption processes. Even today, many continue to face challenges.”

The report was released on Wednesday by the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission following an investigation that began in 2022.

Since then, 367 adoptees – all of which were sent overseas between 1964 and 1999 – had filed petitions alleging fradulent practices in their adoption process.

Some 100 petitions have been analysed so far, of whom 56 adoptees were recognised as victims of human rights violations. The commission is still investigating other cases, with the inquiry set to end in May.

In the aftermath of the Korean war, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world and few families were keen on adopting children.

South Korea’s government then began a transnational adoption programme handled by private agencies, which were given significant powers through special adoption laws.

But there was a “systemic failure in oversight and management”, which led to numerous lapses committed by these agencies, according to the report.

The report noted that foreign agencies had demanded a set number of children every month and Korean agencies complied, “facilitating large-scale intercountry adoptions with minimal procedural oversight”.

With no government regulation on fees, the Korean agencies charged large amounts and demanded “donations”, which turned adoptions into “a profit-driven industry”, according to the report.

Other lapses include adoptions conducted without proper consent from birth mothers and inadequate screening of adoptive parents.

The agencies also fabricated reports that made children appear as if they were abandoned and put up for adoption; and intentionally gave children wrong identities.

Because many adoptees had false identities listed in their paperwork, they now struggle to obtain information about their birth families and are left with inadequate legal protection, the report noted.

The commission has recommended the government deliver an official apology, and to comply with international standards on transnational adoptions.

‘I have had a painful and miserable life’

South Korea has moved to tighten its adoption processes in recent years. In 2023, it passed a law ensuring that all overseas adoptions would be handled by a government ministry instead of private agencies, which is due to come into effect by July.

The South Korean government has yet to respond to Wednesday’s report.

Inger-Tone Ueland Shin, 60, was one of the petitioners whose cases were investigated by the commission. She was adopted by a Norwegian couple when she was 13 – and discovered later on that her adoption was illegal.

The couple, who were in their 50s at the time, had initially applied to adopt but were rejected by Norwegian authorities as they were too old.

They then travelled to South Korea and visited an orphanage, where they selected Inger-Tone and took her with them to Norway.

The couple only submitted an adoption application to Norwegian authorities years later. The authorities approved it, despite acknowledging the illegality of Inger-Tone’s situation, because they determined that by then she had “no connection to Korea anymore”.

Inger-Tone told the BBC she had great difficulty adjusting to life in Norway, and also alleged her adoptive father sexually abused her.

“They took better care of the dog than they ever did of me,” she said. “It was so painful. I wasn’t able to talk or express myself, other than crying at night”.

In 2022, she successfully sued her local government in Norway and was awarded damages. She also received her local government’s acknowledgment that it was liable for “failing to supervise” her adoptive home.

Her adoptive parents have since died.

“They have never spent time in prison for what they’ve done to me. They criminally picked up a child outside of the country… nobody has taken responsibility for what they did to me,” she said.

While she is satisfied with the results of the commission’s investigation, she said: “I have been living in the wrong country and I have had a painful and miserable life.”

“I don’t wish this for anyone and I sincerely hope they do not adopt any more children out of Korea.”

North Korea will sever road and railway access to South Korea from Wednesday in a bid to “completely separate” the two countries.

Its military said the North would “permanently shut off and block the southern border” and fortify areas on its side.

The Korean People’s Army (KPA) described the move as “a self-defensive measure for inhibiting war”, claiming it was in response to war exercises in South Korea and the frequent presence of American nuclear assets in the region.

It marks an escalation of hostility at a time when tensions between the Koreas are at their highest point in years.

“The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security,” the KPA said in a report published by state media outlet KCNA.

The declaration is a largely symbolic step by Pyongyang. Roads and railways leading from North Korea to the South are rarely used, and have been incrementally dismantled by North Korean authorities over the past year.

It also comes amid a broader push by Pyongyang to change how it relates to the South, and follows a string of inflammatory incidents that have worsened relations between the two countries.

Those incidents have ranged from missile tests to hundreds of trash balloons being sent over North Korea’s southern border.

Notably, North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un announced at the start of 2023 that he was no longer striving towards reunification with the South, raising concerns that war could resume in the Korean peninsula.

“I think it is necessary to revise some contents of the Constitution of the DPRK,” Kim said at a meeting of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) in January.

“In my view, it is necessary to delete such expressions in the constitution as ‘northern half’ and ‘independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity’,” he added, suggesting that the constitution should be revised “at the next session”.

That next session was held this week, and concluded on Tuesday. Yet while many onlookers had expected Pyongyang to ratify Kim’s earlier comments and make constitutional amendments to unification and border policies, no such changes were publicised.

One analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification think tank suggested that Pyongyang could be waiting for the outcome of the US election before making any concrete decisions.

Officials could “consider adjusting the extent of constitutional revisions to align with the direction of the new (US) administration”, Hong Min told news agency AFP.

It is unclear whether North Korea’s decision to cut off all roads and railways linking it to the South was a result of discussions during the SPA session.