Korea, South

With the Trump-Kim Summit in Singapore still on the calendar at least for the moment, pundits and analysts alike have been predicting the outcomes or sharing their advice for how…

With the exception of Gangnam Style, few mainstream radio stations have ever even thought to play Korean pop music. But in the last year or so, the United States has…

On February 9, years of hard work will culminate in the opening of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. A month later, on March 8, the 2018 Winter…

Spanning nearly a century and multiple generations, Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel Pachinko tells the story of a Korean family struggling to find their place in Japan before, during, and after…

By Mark Tokola, Troy Stangarone, and Nicholas Hamisevicz Last year saw a series of significant events on the Korean peninsula. On the economic front, South Korea concluded free trade agreements with Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Vietnam, and reached substantial conclusion on a deal with its largest trading partner, China. While inter-Korean relations avoided the…

By Mark Tokola On Wednesday, January 21, four Korean workers were crushed to death at the Geochung Shipbuilding Company in Busan when the operator’s cabin broke away from a 40-ton crane.  A police officer told the press, “It appears that they were trying to disconnect the cabin without proper safety equipment.”  The police will now…

By Andrew Haggard The casual observer may be perplexed by the recent headlines of supposed North Korean hackers effectively bringing Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems to its knees.  How does one reconcile NASA photos and satellite images showing the near-entirety of the northern part of the Korean peninsula in utter darkness with the picture of…

By Mark Tokola One thing everyone knows about North Korea is that it is isolated.  Visits to the DPRK are controlled and monitored.  Few North Koreans are allowed to travel abroad and then only for specific purposes.  Because it is heavily sanctioned by the international community, international trade and investment is minimal.  North Koreans are…

Please join KEI and KIEP for a discussion about the first 10 years of KORUS and the future of the U.S.-Korea economic relationship.