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As he heads out the revolving door of Japanese politics, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has two important stops on his agenda. The first will be in Busan, South Korea, for a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung next week. The two leaders have vowed to solidify the momentum in closer relations and to…

The leadership contest to replace Shigeru Ishiba as Japan’s prime minister will not only decide the next head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) but could also reshape the trajectory of South Korea-Japan relations. On September 7, Prime Minister Ishiba announced that he would step down as head of the ruling LDP. “I have…

The United States and South Korea share an undeniably formidable relationship. According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), bilateral goods and services trade reached USD 239.6 billion in 2024, an 8 percent increase from the previous year. While policy changes in the United States have brought new complexities to the relationship, recognizing the cohesiveness…

Late last month, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met President Donald Trump in the White House in what was arguably Lee’s most difficult foreign policy test to date. If the goal was to avert another Oval Office spectacle between Trump and a world leader, win over Washington’s policy elite, and avoid further demands from…