Korea, South

In April 2023, the United States and South Korea marked the 70th anniversary of an alliance that has served the strategic interests of both countries. Their relationship has expanded beyond…

Building on last year’s “Rethinking Korea initiative,” in 2024 KEI will continue to explore the evolution of US-Korea relations, Korea’s place in the world, rapid changes in Korean society, and…

Despite being industrial powerhouses, Korea and Japan are both resource-poor nations with limited domestic sources of energy. Powering their economies required both to develop supply chains for fossil fuels, nuclear…

KEI is pleased to hold a program on Economic Security and U.S.-China Competition: The View From North Korea. One country is conspicuously missing from existing discussions about the dilemmas and…

By Nayoon Lee Two seemingly unrelated events point to a larger problem in Korea. In 2011, a prosecutor was caught for accepting a Mercedes Benz and a Chanel bag from the opposing lawyer. The lawyer and the prosecutor asserted that they were in a relationship, and the court decided the prosecutor was not guilty. What…

By Troy Stangarone As it begins to sink in that the next U.S. president will be Donald Trump, one question that will be on the mind of those in Northeast Asia is what will Donald Trump’s North Korea policy look like? While North Korea was a more significant topic during the 2016 election than in…

By Phil Eskeland Unlike past U.S. elections, President-elect Donald Trump has made trade a centerpiece of his campaign.  In many appearances, he severely criticized what he characterized as “disastrous trade deals” made over the past two decades.  In fact, his closing argument included pictures of padlocked factory gates and abandoned machinery on the shop floor…

By Mark Tokola Donald Trump’s upending of conventional political wisdom and political “business as usual” is a historic achievement and marks a realignment of American politics.  It will take months, if not years, to sort out the election’s ramifications for domestic policy and politics.  Foreign policy, however, does not allow for such a long-term assessment…

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.