Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to South Korea

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South Korea: a small, largely transient Jewish community, Christian pro-Israel groups, Israeli missiles, radars and drones for the South Korean forces, the 2021 free trade agreement, and Ehud Barak's paid Seoul speech

South Korea has a small, largely transient Jewish community in Seoul, many of them members of the US forces, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC).[1] The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) records Israeli Harpy loitering munitions, Popeye and Spike missiles, Heron drones and radars for South Korean aircraft, ships and air defences. "Israel" and South Korea signed a free trade agreement in May 2021, which came into force in December 2022.[2] Christian groups held public rallies for "Israel" in Seoul after 7 October 2023. The leaked emails of Ehud Barak show him paid $90,000 to speak in Seoul in 2013.

Jewish community and religious life

History and demography

According to the WJC, the first significant Jewish presence on the Korean peninsula came with the hundreds of Jewish American soldiers who fought in the Korean War (1950–53). The community today is "essentially a transient group concentrated in Seoul", many of them soldiers and officers of the US forces, with a handful of business people and teachers. At the Yongsan Army Base, Shabbat and holiday services are led by a US Army chaplain.[1]

Communal organisations

Jewish Community of the Republic of Korea. The WJC lists the Jewish Community of the Republic of Korea, based in Seoul.[1]

How far is it Zionist? No statement by the community on Zionism or "Israel" was found.

Chabad

Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Korea


Zionist groups

Korea-Israel Friendship Association and Israel Forum. On 17 October 2023 about 500 Koreans and Israelis rallied in Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, waving Israeli flags and singing "Hatikva". The Korea Times reported that the rally was organised by the Korea-Israel Friendship Foundation (named by the JoongAng Ilbo as the Korea-Israel Friendship Association) and the Israel Forum, and that the Israeli ambassador, Akiva Tor, attended.[3] The JoongAng Ilbo described the Israel Forum as a religious organisation, and reported that the friendship association's president, the former deputy prime minister for education Hwang Woo-yea, said he supported the right of the Israeli government to protect its citizens from Hamas's "terror" and to defend itself. It quoted Tor as saying: "We are not afraid. If we must fight, we will win" (translated from the Japanese edition). A US embassy official said that the United States "will always support Israel". The paper also reported pro-Palestinian rallies in Seoul calling for an end to the bombing of Gaza.[4]

Korean Aliyah Headquarters. Israel National News reported that in late 2023 a group of South Korean Christians led by the Korean Aliyah Headquarters held a two-week vigil outside the Israeli embassy in Seoul. Their leader, who heads the Korean Aliyah Headquarters, had sent help to Israeli soldiers, and said that "Korean Christians will always be with Israel".[5]

Israeli state and commercial ties

Diplomacy

The Israeli foreign ministry lists an embassy in Seoul, with recognition dated January 1963.[6]

Arms

SIPRI records the following Israeli deliveries to South Korea:[7]

  • 100 Harpy loitering munitions, delivered in 1998–2000;
  • 100 Popeye air-to-surface missiles, delivered in 2002 as part of a $100–125 million deal that included modernising F-4E combat aircraft;
  • two EL/M-2080 Green Pine air-search radars, delivered in 2012 for use with Patriot missile systems;
  • four SandCat Spike-NLOS missile launchers (2013) and 67 Spike-NLOS missiles for them, and 60 Spike-NLOS missiles for AW-159 helicopters (2015–16);
  • 60 M-2032 radars for FA-50 combat aircraft built in South Korea (2013–16), and nine of 20 ordered for TA-50 Block-2 aircraft (2023–25);
  • three Heron reconnaissance drones, delivered in 2016 in a KRW 30 billion deal;
  • one EL/M-2248 MF-STAR radar for the amphibious assault ship Marado, delivered in 2021.

SIPRI also records an order in 2025 for four EL/W-2085 airborne early-warning radars for Global-6500 aircraft, not yet delivered.[7]

Trade

The free trade agreement between "Israel" and the Republic of Korea was signed on 12 May 2021 and entered into force on 1 December 2022.[2] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $2,773.7 million from South Korea in 2025 (2024: $2,558.5 million) and exported goods worth $1,110.7 million to it (2024: $883.7 million).[8]

Political interference

UN voting

The Republic of Korea voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[9]

Ehud Barak's emails

The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[10]

  • Global HR Forum, 2013. In April 2013 the Harry Walker Agency passed on a "firm invitation" from the Korea Economic Daily for Barak to speak at its 7th Global HR Forum at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill hotel in Seoul on 5–6 November 2013. The agency had "secured an honorarium of $90,000 plus an additional $10,000 towards airfare", plus first-class hotels and expenses for two. Barak was asked not to take part in other public, ticketed events in South Korea until 7 November.[11] The agency confirmed the engagement in August 2013.[12] Its contract also provided for an advance interview with the newspaper, whose first question was about the Israeli Yozma venture-capital fund.[13]
  • Korean venture-capital fund. In September 2013 the Israeli lawyer Ami Orkaby forwarded to Barak an adviser's note on a public notice by the Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC) for overseas venture funds. The adviser wrote that the Korean-language notice required "a Korean or Korean-American(or Jewish) partner", and that a fund which invested in Korean companies, with the money "used to acquire Israeli technology or corporations for the globalization of investeed Korean companies", would "get strong support from Korean government".[14]
  • Business contacts. After the Seoul visit a Korean lawyer, copying Orkaby, wrote to Barak that he hoped their meeting "can lead to a good business partnership between Israel and Korea".[15]

Jeffrey Epstein

No substantive references to South Korea were found in the documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein files. The hits for Seoul and Korea are mainly flight records, art-auction invoices, news digests and financial papers.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 World Jewish Congress, Community in South Korea worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 World Intellectual Property Organization, Free Trade Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Government of Israel WIPO Lex, accessed 21 October 2026.
  3. ↑ Israelis in Korea devastated by war-torn homeland The Korea Times, 17 October 2023, accessed 21 October 2026.
  4. ↑ ソウルの光化門で韓国初のイスラエル支持集会…「韓国人の支持に感激」 ("Korea's first pro-Israel rally at Gwanghwamun in Seoul") JoongAng Ilbo (Japanese edition), October 2023, accessed 21 October 2026.
  5. ↑ South Korean Communities Stand Strong with Israel Israel National News, accessed 21 October 2026.
  6. ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011 (Israeli government-side).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
  8. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
  9. ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
  10. ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Email from Don Walker (Harry Walker Agency) to Nili Priell, forwarded to Ehud Barak, "Korea Economic Daily", 23 April 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!47/1 (187).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  12. ↑ Email from the Harry Walker Agency to Nili Priell Barak, forwarded to Ehud Barak, "Fwd: PM Barak Confirmed Engagements", 23 August 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!44/1 (144).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Email from the Harry Walker Agency to Nili Priell Barak, forwarded to Ehud Barak, "Fwd: Global HR Forum", 27–28 August 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!44/1 (116).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  14. ↑ Email from Ami Orkaby to Ehud Barak, forwarded by Nili Priell Barak, "Fwd: 해외VC투자유치공고문" ("overseas VC investment notice"), 29 September 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!42/1 (435).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  15. ↑ Email to Ehud Barak, copied to Ami Orkaby, "Dear PM Ehud Barak", 11 November 2013, file ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com/Inbox!2/1 (399).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
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