United States of America

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most significant economic disruption to the international economy since the Great Depression. The IMF estimates that the global economy contracted by 3.5 percent last…

KEI’s 2021 Report on American Attitudes on the U.S.-ROK Alliance and North Korea Policy summarizes results from a survey commissioned by KEI and conducted by YouGov on May 6th to…

This paper addresses the U.S.-South Korea alliance in the context of Asia’s evolving security architecture. At the crux of the issue is the Biden administration’s desire to uphold the rules-based…

The Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI), with the generous support of the Korea Foundation, organized six “Vision Group” roundtable conversations with leading American scholars and commentators to discuss the…

On May 20, 2025, the UN General Assembly held its first-ever “high-level session” devoted to the human rights abuses of North Korea. This latest action ups the ante in calling for reform of North Korea’s abysmal human rights record. Every year since 2004, the General Assembly has adopted resolutions criticizing North Korea and calling for…

Policy uncertainty in the United States has increased, which is influencing the long-term outlook for South Korean multinationals’ investment decisions. I use recent data to quantify the magnitude and drivers of this uncertainty, including trade, monetary, and fiscal policies. Then, I examine how firms may respond, such as aligning with U.S. policy initiatives, adopting a…

Amid all the talk of tariffs and investments in the United States, numerous reports and analyses have pointed to the benefits of deep socioeconomic linkages between the United States and South Korea. As President Donald Trump noted as early as 2019, “Hyundai, Samsung, CJ, Doosan, and SK Group… have created more than 50,000 brand new…

South Korean officials proposed “support[ing] the revitalization of the U.S. shipbuilding industry” as an avenue for cooperation during the two-plus-two tariff negotiations between the United States and South Korea on April 24, 2025. Moving forward, future negotiations by the United States on trade will continue to involve partnerships in areas where allied countries such as…

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.