KEI Contributor – Mark Tokola

Writing for the Nikkei, KEI Vice President Mark Tokola highlighted how President Moon Jae-in defied expectations in his speech commemorating Korea's liberation from Japan in 1945 by offering a vision…

Mark Tokola, Korea Economic Institute of America vice president, discusses the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea with Bloomberg's Shery Ahn and Paul Allen on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia." In…

KEI Vice President Mark Tokola appeared on Russia-langauge news network RTVI to provide analysis of the last Trump-Kim Summit in DMZ. Despite the criticism, Tokola noted that the meeting was…

After the meeting between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump at the DMZ on June 30, KEI Vice President Mark Tokola was invited to ABC News to discuss its implications. In…

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 Reporting on the April 10, 2019 meeting of the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea, the North Korean state media headline was: “N. Korea must deal a ‘blow’ against hostile forces, Kim Jung-un tells the ruling party.” The Central Committee meeting was held in advance of the 14th Supreme People’s…

By Mark Tokola The exact date and place of the second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have not been announced but the White House has said that it will take place before the end of February.  It is widely speculated that the two leaders will meet in Vietnam and the government of Vietnam…

By Mark Tokola The history of how to end a war is as long as the history of warfare.  The established pattern has been first an agreement to stop fighting -- called an armistice (the word dates from the 1660s) -- followed by a peace conference to arrive at some form of settlement.  Armistices are…

By Mark Tokola One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is, “Can we trust Kim Jong-un?” Sometimes it is worded, “Is Kim Jong-un serious when he says he is going to denuclearize?” I usually begin my answer with, “I have no idea, and I’m not sure it matters.” Trusting relationships are important in international…