KEI Contributor – Mark Tokola

On October 19, KEI Vice President Mark Tokola will visit Columbus, Georgia. There, he will be the featured speaker at Columbus State University's Hallock Speaker Series, where he will discuss North…

Several Korean news sources cited a blog by KEI Vice President Mark Tokola entitled "Why is China So Upset about THAAD?" originally published on August 30. Yonhap News, the Korea…

KEI Vice President Mark Tokola was recently published in The Korea Times. Tokola, who served in the U.S. foreign service in both Seoul and London, wrote an editorial on Brexit…

On May 3, KEI Vice President Mark Tokola was quoted in a news broadcast on Korea's Arirang TV. In the story, Asisstant Secretary of State Daniel Russel reiterated the US…

Does the forty-fifth president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, have a foreign policy, not least of all inclusive of the vital Northeast Asian region? The question is not…

With an outbreak of diplomacy under way for the Korean Peninsula, a review of North Korea’s approach to negotiations is timely. A summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and…

For the proverbial visitor from Mars, the political situation in Northeast Asia is inexplicable. Sitting amidst a group of relatively stable, wealthy, and powerful countries, is a small, poor, belligerent…

Today’s relationship between the United States and China is more varied, complex, and cooperative than the accumulation of headlines would lead one to believe. The news media and commentators spotlight…

As 2021 began, the world was still in the depths of the pandemic and vaccines to protect against COVID-19 were only beginning to become available to the public in a small number of countries. As 2022 begins, the pandemic continues to impact lives and economies around the world but there are signs of recovery. Among…

This is the second in a 10 part series looking at how the issues identified in KEI’s annual “10 Issues to Watch for on the Korean Peninsula” series developed in 2021. The original “10 Issues” piece can be found here. Although it is commonly understood that the Biden Administration carried out a policy review regarding…

We were reminded last year that it can be difficult to anticipate the events that will dominate any given year. As 2020 began, few people expected focus of the world or the Korean Peninsula to be on a global pandemic, but that is how the year unfolded. South Korea has handled the pandemic relatively well…

It seems unlikely that there will be any diplomatic breakthroughs with North Korea during the remainder of 2020 unless Kim Jong-un unexpectedly launches a major initiative involving tangible concessions.  Donald Trump has little to gain from another summit unless it achieved something dramatic and concrete.  Kim Jong-un would be wary of any new deal with…