United States of America

KEI recently completed its sixteenth annual Ambassadors’ Dialogue program (previously called the Korea Caravan), featuring Lee Tae-sik, the Republic of Korea’s Ambassador to the United States, and Alexander Vershbow, United…

May brought several significant developments for the KORUS FTA. On May 10, the Bush Administration and Congress announced an agreement on a new trade policy, focusing in particular on labor…

83/751. At press time, 83 days have passed since North Korea tested a nuclear device on October 9, 2006 and 751 days remain in the Bush Presidency. If the stalemate…

With negotiations running down to the wire, Korean and American negotiators announced that they reached a deal just before President George W. Bush’s trade promotion authority expired at 11:59 pm…

KEI Communications Director Jenna Gibson, host of the KEI podcast Korean Kontext, recently interviewed Ambassador Christopher Hill, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The following is a partial transcript of that conversation, which has been edited for space. The rest of the episode can be found here.   Gibson: Since…

By Robert R. King A few days ago during a visit to Seoul, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, called for an investigation into conditions under which 12 North Korean waitresses and their manager who defected from China to South Korea two years ago with the help…

By Kyle Ferrier and Linnea Logie While South Koreans celebrated their team’s upset victory over Germany in the World Cup earlier this week, no country was happier about the win than Mexico. The South Korean “Reds” late game heroics against Germany advanced Mexico to the next round of the tournament despite Mexico’s simultaneous 3-0 loss…

By William Brown South Korea is abuzz with talk of big economic projects in North Korea, like railroads, electric transmission lines, and gas and oil pipelines, a remarkable change just since September when a huge nuclear blast shook the peninsula, forcing everyone to take notice of Kim Jong-un’s growing arsenal. Even some Americans are joining…

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.