Korean peninsula 2023: A year of rising tensions and political polarization

After the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2023 both Koreas started a process of domestic and external consolidation and restructuring. This process however had the main effect of increasing tensions and political polarization on the peninsula. After a very close presidential election in South Korea, in 2023 the new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, tried to implement the reforms that had promised during his electoral campaign. However, the domestic political polarization and the control of the Nation- al Assembly by the opposition party created obstacles to this process. The result was a strong increase in political polarization between progressives and conservatives and a personalization of the political debate around the two main leaders, Yoon and Lee Jae-myung, within the parties. North Korea, in the meantime, continued to strengthen its partnership and coopera- tion with Russia and China, with the goal not only of improving its domestic econom- ic and military situation, but also reinforcing its position at the international level. The simultaneous rapprochement between South Korea and Japan, that took place in the first half of the year, and the consolidation of the trilateral relation with the United States, celebrated with the summit in Camp David, contributed to create two separate fronts on the peninsula and in the region, increasing tension. In this situation, inter-Korean relations continued to suffer, with both Koreas contrib- uting to this deterioration: North Korea through its continuing missile tests and mili- tary provocations, South Korea by responding with harsh rhetoric, hard line positions by the government, and military actions of its own.