United States of America

Despite an historic delay and continued opposition in some quarters, passage of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) looks set to proceed quickly through the United States Congress. The…

KEI has bid farewell to 6 of its 9 family members this year. The faces and personalities are changing, but KEI’s commitment to excellence remains. We have a basic philosophy…

During the last two years ago, U.S.-South Korea relations have strengthened in ways that many Korea watchers did not expect. With a liberal President Barack Obama entering office, some feared…

Last year was a momentous year for the Korean Peninsula. As the world worked its way out of the global and financial crisis of 2008-2009, South Korea demonstrated its global…

On August 9th, President Biden signed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act to boost U.S. investment in the semiconductor industry and incentivize domestic manufacturers. Some of its major provisions incentivize investment in the United States by major foreign chip manufacturers, namely those from Taiwan and South Korea. Framed as a…

South Korea, Japan, and the United States have pledged to deepen security cooperation in response to growing threats from North Korea. On June 11, the nations convened at a Trilateral Ministerial Meeting and issued a joint statement condemning North Korea’s provocative posture and reaffirming their commitment to nuclear non-proliferation. But this trilateral alignment repeats the…

On May 2, South Korea and Norway kicked off the annual defense industry cooperation talk in Seoul with a focus on Oslo’s prospective acquisition of Korean tanks. Both players hope to also deepen bilateral and regional cooperation through joint defense research. This is representative of Korea’s broader effort to play a bigger role in the…

At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, the popular Korean boyband BTS was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group. When they left empty-handed, Korean fans and critics alike were outraged - not by the loss itself but by what appeared to be the Grammy’s exploitation of the group’s popularity to improve their own declining viewership. Korean online…

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.