Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
Speakers including Dr. Radha Plumb, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, U.S. Department of Defense (third from left), discuss responsible AI use in a plenary session at the Responsible AI in the Military domain (REAIM) summit in Seoul, South Korea, September 9, 2024.
China’s nuclear noncommitment
Today, global delegates to the Responsible AI in the Military Domain Summit in Seoul adopted a non-binding agreement promising to keep nuclear weapons solely in human control — and not under the control of artificial intelligence.
60 of the 100 countries in attendance adopted the “blueprint for action,” a pledge to “maintain human control and involvement for all actions … concerning nuclear weapons employment.”
Notably, China did not sign the agreement. The White House previously disclosed that China has refused to commit to limiting the decision-making around nukes to humans. “Our position has been publicly clear for a long time: We don’t think that autonomous systems should be getting near any decision to launch a nuclear weapon. That’s a long-stated U.S. policy, said US National Security Council Director of Technology Tarun Chhabra earlier this summer. “We think all countries around the world should sign up to that.” (Russia was not invited to the summit due to its invasion of Ukraine.)
Experts previously told GZERO AI that China has signaled to the UN that nuclear weapons should never be used in war and that powerful weapons systems should stay under human control, but Beijing has shied away from official and direct pronouncements on the matter.At a joint press conference in front of the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on August 29, 2024, youth climate litigants and citizen groups involved in climate lawsuits chant slogans emphasizing that the court ruling marks not the end, but the beginning of climate action. The Constitutional Court rules that the failure to set carbon emission reduction targets for the period from 2031 to 2049 is unconstitutional and orders the government to enact alternative legislation by February 2026.
South Korea’s climate verdict: A catalyst for worldwide legal action
South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled that the country’s climate change measures are insufficient for protecting the rights of citizens, particularly those of future generations. On Thursday, it ordered the government to go back to the drawing board to set more ambitious — and legally binding — carbon-reduction targets for 2031 and beyond.
The ruling was based on a case involving 250 plaintiffs — one-third of them children or teenagers — upset by the absence of legally binding greenhouse gas emission targets. The court agreed with them and said the lack of targets beyond 2030 shifted an undue burden onto future generations.
“Environmental litigation is becoming a global phenomenon. A key catalyst is the UN’s 2022 resolution, which established a universal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment,” says Franck Gbaguidi, director of global sustainability at Eurasia Group. “It has given more power to existing climate laws and made it easier to take legal action against environmental harm without necessarily needing to prove specific harm to health, life, or property.”
This ruling is the first of its kind in Asia, but it is “expected to trigger a domino effect across Asia, where many similar cases are in the works,” says Gbaguidi. It comes on the heels of similar rulings in Germany, Switzerland, India, and Montana that governments have a constitutional responsibility to their citizens, current and future, to combat climate change.
“We’re now entering an era of intense legal scrutiny on environmental policies, making it more likely for these cases to succeed,” says Gbaguidi. “This means we’ll see more strategic and sophisticated lawsuits against governments and companies, with courtrooms becoming key battlegrounds for climate change action.”Sue Mi Terry, director at Bower Group Asia, speaks on a "Crisis on the Peninsula: Implications for the U.S. - Korea Alliance" panel at the Asia Society in New York, U.S., June 19, 2017.
High-profile North Korean defects – and ex-CIA analyst faces charges of spying for the South
Back in November, a senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba defected to South Korea — but we didn’t learn about it until this week. On Tuesday, South Korea’s spy agency confirmed a Chosun Ilbo newspaper report that diplomat Ri Il Kyu defected with his wife and children last fall. “Disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future led me to consider defection,” Ri told the paper.
This marks the most high-profile defection of a North Korean diplomat since 2016.
“This defection is related to the surprise announcement in February 2024 that South Korea was establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba [a longtime ally of North Korea]. Ri appeared to be involved in the effort to thwart that campaign,” says Jeremy Chan, a Korea expert at Eurasia Group, adding that Ri also seemingly defected over personal grievances, such as a poor performance review.
The defection is also linked to a broader trend of North Korea shuttering embassies around the globe, says Chan, which has been a cost-saving maneuver that’s also opened the door for Pyongyang to “redirect more diplomatic resources to Russia, with which North Korea is rapidly developing closer ties.”
As a result of Ri defecting, Chan says that Pyongyang is likely to place its diplomats under greater scrutiny, and “this trend of closing embassies to save funds will likely continue.” With an elite background, Ri is likely to provide intelligence that could be useful for South Korea and its allies like the US, says Chan. While such information is unlikely to ever go public, Ri has already alleged that two North Korean officials assigned to negotiate with the Trump administration have been punished — claiming one was sent to a penal colony and the other was executed.
Washington saw its own K-drama on Tuesday as well, when news broke that former CIA and NSC official Sue Mi Terry had been indicted for allegedly acting as an unregistered agent for Seoul. The government says she accepted luxury gifts in exchange for promoting South Korean policy positions in US media and policy circles from 2013 to 2023.
Terry’s lawyers denied the charges and said they would prove in court that the US government had made a mistake. Nonetheless, Terry admitted in a 2023 interview with the FBI that she had resigned from the CIA in 2008 because she was facing dismissal over the agency’s concerns about her contacts with South Korean intelligence.
Intuit logo displayed on a phone screen and a laptop keyboard are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on October 30, 2021.
Hard Numbers: Intuit’s mass layoff, Very expensive flip phone, AMD’s Finnish acquisition, Taiwan’s millionaire class
1,800: Intuit, the company behind popular financial software Quickbooks and Turbotax, announced a mass layoff of 1,800 employees — about 10% of the company — with plans to rehire the same number with a renewed focus on AI. The firm has an AI-powered financial advice tool, called Intuit Assist, in which it plans to invest heavily. That new investment might be necessary: A recent Washington Post review of Intuit’s AI assistant called it “awful” — not only “unhelpful” but also “wrong” much of the time.
1,899: Samsung has a new line of AI-powered foldable phones — and they’re extremely expensive. The Galaxy Z Fold starts at $1,899.99, a $100 increase from last year’s model. This nouveau flip phone boasts AI tools such as voice recording transcription, translation, and summarizing and text suggestions across email and social media apps. AI isn’t exactly a new thing on mobile phones, of course — so hopefully for this price, these new features make Siri look like a bot of the past.
665 million: The chip designer AMD is buying a Finnish startup called Silo AI for $665 million. Silo bills itself as “Europe’s largest private AI lab.” This deal will get AMD into the AI development business — an expansion from its hardware focus — as it tries to compete with industry leader Nvidia.
1.16 million: There are plenty of new millionaires in Taiwan, thanks to AI. Taiwan is a global hub for the semiconductor industry, which has boomed in recent years due to demand for AI. TSMC, its leading firm, is a key global fabricator for computer chips of all kinds. Taiwan’s total number of US dollar millionaires was 790,000 last year and could grow to 1.16 million by 2028, according to a new estimate by UBS.U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump smiles during the Suffolk County Republican Committee fundraising reception in Patchogue, New York April 14, 2016.
Hard Numbers: Embarrassing politicians, European antisemitism, Lasers vs. drones, Inflationary surprise, Bear attacks, Rouen spire blaze
63: A new poll from Pew Research finds that 63% of voters describe bothJoe Biden and Donald Trump as “embarrassing.” Some supporters – 37% of Biden supporters and 33% of Trump supporters – say their own candidate is embarrassing.
75: A new survey from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency has found a surge in antisemitism in Europe. In particular,75% of the Jewish Europeans interviewed said they felt they were held responsible for the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza because they are Jewish.
1.50: South Korea’s government announced Thursday it will deploy a laser weapons system to intercept North Korean drones, which have created recent headaches for the country’s security. The lasers in question will reportedly cost about$1.50 per shot.
3: US inflation in June eased more than economists expected, extending a recent slowdown in price increases and feeding speculation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this fall. The consumer-price index rose3% year on year.
219: The first four months of this year saw a record219 bear attacks in Japan. Six of them were fatal. In response, Japan’s government reportedly plans to revise poaching laws to lift some restrictions that ban hunters from shooting bears.
70: The spire of a famous Gothic cathedral in the French city of Rouen caught fire on Thursday. Thankfully, about70 firefighters were able to contain the blaze. This spire appeared in a number of paintings by impressionist Claude Monet, and between 1876 and 1880 the church was the world’s tallest building.
China’s foreign ministry on Thursday warned NATO not to bring “chaos” into Asia and accused the alliance of seeking security at the expense of other countries after it labeled Beijing a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
China tells NATO to butt out
China’s foreign ministry on Thursday warned NATO not to bring “chaos” into Asia and accused the alliance of seeking security at the expense of other countries after it labeled Beijing a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The foreign ministry’s comments come amid increasing cooperation between NATO and US allies in the Pacific, particularly Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines.
Washington and its allies accuse China of helping Russia skirt arms controls by shipping so-called “dual use” goods that can be applied in both civilian and military contexts. In turn, China gets access to heavily discounted Russian oil and gas — a desirable asset at any time, but advantageous for China’s economy at a moment when it appears particularly shaky.
At home, however, Beijing has signaled not to expect “strong medicine” to boost the economy at next week’s upcoming Third Party Plenum, scheduled for July 15-18 behind closed doors.
These meetings are closely watched because past leaders have used them to deliver big news. Deng Xiaoping announced the earth-shaking “Opening and Reform” policy, for example, at the 1978 session.
Xi Jinping isn’t expected to announce any major policy shifts, according to experts at Eurasia Group. So we’ll be watching for language intended to boost consumer confidence battered by the roiling debt crisis, but little by way of decisive policy.Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Philippine's Defence Minister Gilberto Teodoro shake hands after signing the reciprocal access agreement, at the Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippines, July 8, 2024.
Can Japan afford to muscle up?
Japan and the Philippines signed a new defense pact on Monday, allowing the mutual deployment of forces to each other’s territory for training – part of a larger mutual effort to stave off China. But while Tokyo’s diplomats are sealing deals with much-needed allies, its defense officials are stressing that a weak yen threatens to eat up their budgets.
Before the Filipino deal, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reached similar defense agreements with Australia and the UK, and he has established historically warmer ties with South Korea, improving political and military cooperation. He is also trying to double defense spending by 2027, which would make Japan the world’s third-largest military spender. So why is Tokyo slashing orders for new airplanes and warning of more cuts?
Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential election candidate of South Korea's main opposition People Power Party (PPP), speaks during a news conference at the party's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea January 24, 2022.
South Korea considers sending weapons to Ukraine
Well, if North Korea is going to cozy up to Russia like that, South Korea isn’t going to just sit there, is it?
No, it’s not. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Pyongyang on Wednesday, where he and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un celebrated their “fiery friendship” and inked a new strategic alliance, Seoul said it could start sending weapons directly to Kyiv to help Ukraine repel Russia.
That would mark a dramatic change from South Korea’s current policy of supporting US and EU sanctions against Russia while arming Ukraine only indirectly – by selling high-tech weaponry to Poland, which in turn has sent its own, Soviet-era equipment to Ukraine.
Kyiv, for its part, is keen to secure more firepower as Russia grinds its way deeper into Eastern Ukraine. These weapons “could have a meaningful impact on battlefield dynamics and potentially cause Moscow to reconsider the cost at which its burgeoning partnership with Pyongyang has come,” says Jeremy Chan, an East Asia expert at Eurasia Group.
Putin did not take kindly to the announcement, warning South Korea that arming Ukraine would be "a big mistake" and that Moscow "will... [make] decisions which are unlikely to please the current leadership of South Korea" if Seoul proceeds.
Meanwhile, Korean peninsula tensions are growing, as Seoul deepens its military coordination with the US and Japan, while Pyongyang has been testing more missiles and, of course, sending those gifts of garbage and excrement across the 38th parallel.