KEI Contributor – Mark Tokola

KEI Vice President Mark Tokola was interviewed by Bloomberg on March 17, 2021. In response to questions regarding North Korea’s position vis-a-vis the Biden administration, Mark noted: “The ball is…

The East Asia Forum published KEI Vice President Mark Tokola and intern Alexandra Langford’s op-ed calling for the South Korean government to be a more vocal advocate for ethnic Mongolians…

Future of Korea is one of KEI’s flagship programs, travelling throughout the country to share news and developments on the U.S.-Korea relations with the public at large. Led by KEI…

KEI Vice President Mark Tokola was cited in a recent PBS article on the growing friction between South Korea and Japan – he expressed hope that the United States was…

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…

By Mark Tokola Historical analogies are fraught. Things never happen exactly the same way twice, and assuming they do can be misleading.  Nevertheless, historical parallels can offer useful perspectives.  For example, an advisor to South Korean President Moon Jae-in who recently visited Washington remarked that one element of President Moon’s philosophy for South Korea was…

By Mark Tokola Now that North Korea has defied warnings from the international community not to conduct a sixth nuclear test, including from its friends China and Russia, the challenge is, how to respond?  North Korea knows it has made a hugely provocative step.  The September 3rd test was by orders of magnitude larger than…

By Mark Tokola At 5:58 a.m. on August 28, North Korea launched what was probably an intermediate range missile that passed over Japan and landed in the Pacific after a flight of 1,700 miles.  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, “North Korea’s reckless action of launching a missile that passed over Japan is an unprecedented,…

By Mark Tokola Although tensions with North Korea seem to have eased during the past few days with statements by Secretary of State Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Mattis emphasizing diplomacy over military confrontation, the test of wills between Washington and Pyongyang continues with the U.S. government stating that it will settle for nothing less…