Korea, South

  With the recent retirement by Yi So-yeon, South Korea’s remaining astronaut, many have turned attention to Korea, wondering whether there is a future for its space program. According to Daniel Pinkston of the…

    In this episode, we talk with Dr. Yiagadeesen Samy of Carleton University on income inequality in South Korea and its affect on Korea’s economy. Dr. Samy is an economist…

      President Obama wasn’t the only leader who had to make important visits to multiple Asian countries this past April. Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, had to make an important…

  The Francis Effect is everywhere. Time Magazine named Pope Francis their 2013 Person of the Year, another magazine dedicated specifically to covering Pope Francis has been started in Italy,…

President Yoon Suk Yeol announced on July 5 that South Korea will expand its nuclear energy production to more than 30% of total electricity creation by 2030 from the current level of 27.4%. This is part of a broader plan to use nuclear, hydrogen, and renewable sources of energy to decrease fossil fuels as a…

In the last two posts on Korea and the war in Ukraine, I showed that Moon administration moved relatively quickly to join the international sanctions regime and was rewarded by inclusion on Russia’s  "unfriendly nations" list. I also argued that the costs of standing on international legal principle were softened by the fact that the…

A recent hearing by the Congressional Human Rights Commission expressed hopes for a breakthrough in South Korea’s refugee policies under the Yoon administration. Despite its growing international status and economic power, the country retains an extraordinarily low refugee acceptance rate of 1.5%. South Korea’s refugee policies have been so far shaped by political expedience, not…

Wavve, a South Korean streaming service, plans to release two LGBTQ dating shows in July 2022. While dating and romance reality programs are popular in South Korea, non-heterosexual couples have not been represented in programs developed by mass broadcast studios. Smaller, independent media companies like Wavve on the other hand are more responsive to these…

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.