With President Yoon Suk-yeol’s stated goal of improving Korea-Japan relations, policy observers point to the long-standing historical legacies issues as the key hurdles to reconciliation. In particular, recent talks between the ROK Foreign Minister and his Japanese counterpart stressed the importance of resolving the issue of compensation for Korean victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor.…
July 25, 2022
On July 4, the foreign ministers of South Korea and Mexico agreed to expand economic cooperation. Building on the resumption of free trade agreement negotiations earlier this year, the two nations emphasized economic security and supply chains as areas for increased collaboration. In addition to directly responding to global concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic’s ongoing…
July 24, 2022
It took 53 days of legislative vacuum for South Korea’s two political parties to finalize committee chair appointments for the second half of the 21st National Assembly. While immediate points of tension such as wrangling over a new police support organization may have shaped the partisan divide, these deadlocks are a perennial issue in South…
July 23, 2022
*Since the below article was published, KakaoTalk decided to drop its challenge against Google's control over in-app payments. However, Korea's revised Telecommunications Business Act still sets the stage for future challenges with global ramifications. Google suspended software updates for KakaoTalk, South Korea’s most popular mobile messaging app, after the latter refused the U.S. tech giant’s demand…