United States of America

Southeast Asia/ASEAN is enormously important to the “rebalancing” and “pivot” of American policy towards the Asia-Pacific region. In fact, in recent years, there has been considerable scholarly and analytical debate…

China’s ideal outcome for North Korea is a Goldilocks state—one that is not so strong to challenge China or so weak that its implosion threatens Chinese interests. China’s multifaceted approach…

The six-party talks have been hindered by political shifts in the states involved, and especially by changing levels of support for the talks in Washington and Seoul. But the talks…

The United States, Russia, and China have cooperated to help deter North Korea from again invading the South and thus preventing Korean tensions to become a devastating hot war. While…

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…

South Korea narrowly avoided a technical recession in the third quarter (Q3) of 2024 as GDP eked out a disappointing 0.1 percent gain from Q2, according to the Bank of Korea. The increase follows a small decrease in Q2 and a large upturn in Q1. The Q3 data corresponds to about a 0.4 percent gain…

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.