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…

By Phil Eskeland What does the looming vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the President have to do with Korea?  While Korea is currently not party to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, on the surface, the TPA debate appears not to affect Korea all that much.  However,…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz Once again, a month of positive movements but also negative setbacks that keep near term inter-Korean relations uncertain. Many of the inter-Korean related activities that took place in May involved Kaesong in some way. Even with a few interactions, discouraging rhetoric still hurts the possibilities for future possibilities. Inter-Korean connections have been…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz “Survive and advance” is a phrase often associated with the month of March with the NCAA basketball tournament in the United States, but the phrase could be applied to the month of April for events on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas, as well as the other countries involved in Northeast Asia,…

By Mark Tokola One March 26th newspaper headline read: “South Korea Seeks Membership in Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.”  Another newspaper’s headline read: “Decision to Join China-Led Bank Tests South Korea’s Ties to U.S.”  The latter probably drew more readers because, face it, stories about multilateral lending institutions rarely stir excitement.  Stories about potential rifts between…

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.