KEI Contributor – Mark Tokola

Radio Free Asia featured insights from KEI Vice President Mark Tokola in its latest article on the exchange of letters between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. As the U.S. government…

KEI Vice President Mark Tokola was invited to speak on the geopolitical challenges on the Korean Peninsula for Angelo State University's Distinguished Speaker Series. He was joined by George Hutchinson,…

Writing for the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), KEI Vice President Mark Tokola examines the U.S. and North Korean objectives heading into the February 27–28 summit and offers policy recommendations for…

Writing for the Asan Institute, KEI Vice President Mark Tokola writes about the 1954 Geneva Conference. Many people remember this international conference for ending the First Indochina War and dividing…

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 North Korea figured prominently in President Trump’s January 30, 2018, State of the Union message – remarkably so.  The President’s speech generally focused on domestic issues such as the economy, immigration, infrastructure, and health.  The part of the speech devoted to foreign policy mentioned China, Russia, Afghanistan and Iran, but was mostly…

By Mark Tokola Put yourself in Kim Jong-un’s shoes.  The United States is increasing pressure on your regime through sanctions and diplomatic moves but you’re not ready to engage with the U.S. because you haven’t finished your missile and nuclear weapons testing and development.  Relations with your traditional ally, China, are awful because Beijing also…

By Mark Tokola There is a small but growing body of commentary arguing that Washington and Seoul are drifting apart on North Korea policy.  At the headline level, there clearly is a difference in tone between President Trump’s tough rhetoric and President Moon Jae-in’s insistence that the only acceptable resolution to the North Korean nuclear…

By Mark Tokola Within minutes of President Trump’s September 19 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, headline writers were irresistibly drawn to the President’s threat to “totally destroy” North Korea and his description of “Rocket Man” (aka Kim Jong-un) as being on a “suicide mission.”  But, the context of the tough talk was President…