The Seoul G-20 Five Years On: Development
Five years have passed since South Korea served as the G-20 host in 2010, yet contributions from its presidency of the multilateral economic forum are crucial to this year’s talks.
Gender Discrimination in Job Interviews Contributes to Workforce Inequality
What interests you about this job? What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses? What are your measurements? One of these questions would raise red flags if asked by a potential employer here in the United States, but it is still relatively common in Korea
October 2015: Building from Family Reunions While Tensions Remain in Inter-Korean Relations
With North Korea celebrating the anniversary of its Workers Party on October 10, there was also some initial concern that the event would be marked by a missile launch or nuclear test, which would damage the possibility of the family reunions scheduled for later in the month. No missile or nuclear test occurred, and both the parade for the anniversary and the family reunions took place.
Happy Halloween: Korea Shows a Growing Interest in the Spooky Holiday
Halloween as we know it in the United States is still not widely celebrated in South Korea. Trick or treating is limited to kindergarten parties and English hagwons, and you’re unlikely to see many jack-o-lanterns or skeletons decorating peoples’ homes.
Global Korea? The Potential Long-term Implications of Recent Cuts to English Education
Last month, the Korean Ministry of Education announced major changes to the way South Korean students will learn English. Some of them are positive, and can potentially help ease the overwhelming classroom workload for Korean students. But these new policies may also have some unintended side effects.
Don’t Fret – The U.S. Military is Not Going Away
Yesterday, for just the fifth time in his tenure, President Barack Obama took the highly unusual step of vetoing a bill that passed the normally grid-locked Congress.
The Korean and American Presidents Should Discuss Work-Family Balance Issues
Earlier this year in state of the nation addresses, both presidents stressed the importance of enhancing the lives of middle class families and their centrality to revitalizing their national economies. The work-family balance is no longer a matter of individual life, but a national (even global) issue that governments and policymakers should pick up and do something about.
How a Northeast Asian Development Bank Could Succeed
Still in the nascent stage of planning, a Northeast Asia Development Bank would serve as a multilateral development bank (MDB) to attract investment in Northeast Asia, specifically intending to incentivize the DPRK to denuclearize through access to external capital for development.
Native Korean Religions: The Old and the New
Although hardly a new phenomenon, a number of native religious movements both large and small have attracted scores of devout Korean followers, intermingled with political causes, and in some cases have notoriously landed in news headlines.
September 2015: Tough Rhetoric between Deal and Potential Meetings in Inter-Korean Relations
After the month of August featured shooting, shouting, and a negotiated joint statement, September mainly focused on laying the groundwork necessary to implement the August 25 agreement or to scuttle it.