Always hungry for natural resources, the whole of Korea went crazy with the No. 1 hit song “Block 7” in 1980. I was glued to the TV when that song was aired. The song was written after the Korea-Japan Continental Shelf Agreement, which was signed in January 1974, and which came into effect in June 1978 with a 50-year validity. That craze drove all Koreans to be hopeful of an oil-producing Korea, especially after the two oil shocks of the 1970s.
Posted : 2021-04-06 17:19 By Song Kyung-jin
I take the liberty of guessing that perhaps it is the by-elections taking place in the two largest cities in Korea that forced the government to make two rushed announcements in the space of a week. One was about the immediate possibility of a Korea-U.S. summit within the month of April, and the other was the possibility of a Korea-China bilateral summit soon after the COVID-19 pandemic comes under control. Neither was confirmed by the counterparts. It has in effect undermined the credibility of the Korean government. But at the bottom of it all lies the alleged fact that Korea feels lost with its strategic ambiguity in dealing with the great power rivalry between China and the United States.