United States of America

On 1 April 2007 Korea and the United States finally completed their year-long negotiations to conclude the Korea- U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), which was then signed by the…

President Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory in 2007. His popularity before the election was obvious, and it came as a surprise to almost no one that he won by…

The world can only hope the recent U.S.-North Korean bilateral discussions will revive the six-power talks and lead to Pyongyang’s renunciation of its nuclear weapons ambitions. Hope, however, is not…

This paper builds on Kiyota and Stern (2007), in which we analyzed the economic effects of a U.S.-Korea free trade agreement (KORUSFTA). In Section II, we review the objectives and…

The US House of Representatives adopted the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act on November 20. The original act was first adopted by Congress in 2004, but such legislation is valid for only four or five years. Congress must “reauthorize” or adopt new legislation if the provisions are still needed. The original North Korean Human…

South Korean media have been filled with discussion about what the return to power of Donald Trump in the United States may mean for the Korean Peninsula. High on the list is the possibility that Trump will rekindle his bromance with North Korean autocrat Kim Jong-un, picking up the threads of a bargain that broke…

Uncertainty prevails when it comes to the incoming Donald Trump administration and the US-ROK alliance. Observers are feverishly speculating on a range of potential policy trajectories from universal and across-the-board 10-20 percent tariffs, obstructed implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and less flexible US export controls to increased cost- and burden-sharing demands related to…

North Korea’s human rights violations have been a priority of UN organizations since 2004, when the UN Human Rights Council first appointed a UN Special Rapporteur to report annually on the issue to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly. This focus on North Korea’s human rights violations has been in addition to…

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.