Korea, North

For the first Korean Kontext podcast of 2017, five members of the KEI staff sat down with host Jenna Gibson for a chat about the volitility of 2016 and what…

The last several rounds of UN sanctions against the DPRK have been called the "strongest ever," and the new sanctions passed on November 30 are no different. There are some…

More than 100 million Americans cast their ballots on November 8, and we have a new president-elect. The Trump victory came as a surprise to most, with polls and pundits…

In this episode, which originally aired in 2011, we hear from author Mike Kim, who speaks with Korean Kontext about his experiences living and working with North Korean refugees on…

By Kyle Ferrier and Sang Hyun Back Established in 1953 in response to the North Korean threat, the significance of the U.S.-South Korea alliance today extends far beyond the Peninsula. As like-minded democratic and advanced economies, both countries work closely on a diverse array of issues around the world such as climate change, global health,…

By Kylan Toohey Last October, a 21-year-old part-time worker at a PC cafe in Seoul was stabbed to death by a 29-year-old customer, identified as Kim Sungsoo, who had been at the facility earlier that same day. Both the brutality of the murder and the perpetrator’s apparent lack of motive placed the crime at the…

By Juni Kim It’s been quite a year for North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. After a tense 2017 with multiple ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) tests, threatening rhetoric, and North Korea’s largest nuclear demonstration, Kim Jong-un embarked on a very different approach in 2018. Fashioning himself as an open and reasonable statesmen, he has gone on…

By Phil Eskeland The Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau recently released the latest set of monthly trade statistics for October 2018 that includes data on 3rd Quarter services trade.[1]  In terms of merchandise goods, while the U.S. trade deficit through October with the world expanded by 11 percent, the Republic of Korea…

Please join KEI for a discussion on North Korea’s potential incorporation of AI into its cyber arsenal.