May 25, 2011

Second Economic Team: Can They Revive an Ailing Economy?

By Florence Lowe-Lee

Korea’s economy has been deteriorating more rapidly than previously expected. The nation saw its first negative growth in more than 10 years in the fourth...

May 25, 2011

What to Do with North Korea Now? No Answers Yet

By Nicole Finnemann

What Happened On April 5, North Korea delivered on a North Korean promise. It launched a long range missile, also known as a Taepo-dong 2,...

May 25, 2011

2008’s Final Attempt at a Six Party Solution

By Nicole Finnemann

Eyes and ears were on Beijing earlier this month, as the chief negotiators from China, North Korea, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and the United States...

May 25, 2011

Weathering the Storm: Korea’s Shipbuilding Industry

By Greg Scarlatoiu

Surrounded on three sides by water, Korea is an oceanic nation that depends on the import of 95 percent of its energy sources and the...

May 25, 2011

Korea Feels Wall Street Crisis …And Reacts

By Florence Lowe-Lee

Korea has once again been threatened by financial contagion that started in another country. In 1997, it began with Thai baht; this time, the trouble...

May 25, 2011

Olympic Aftermath: What Lies Ahead?

By Arthur N. Taylor, Greg Scarlatoiu

When the curtain fell on the XXIX Beijing Olympics, South Korean athletes, with 13 gold, 10 silver, and 8 bronze medals, had proven once again...

May 25, 2011

U.S. Financial Turmoil And Impact on Korea’s Economy

By Florence Lowe-Lee

Black September, Meltdown Monday, America’s Financial 9/11, Financial Tsunami, Perfect Storm, worse financial crisis since the Great Depression 1929… Whatever the term used, recent events...

May 25, 2011

Explosive Progress in The Six Party Talks: What’s Left to Do When It Is All Done?

By Nicole Finnemann

Adhering to the action-for-action framework of the February 13, 2007 agreement, North Korea and the United States traded symbolic actions last week that grabbed the...

May 25, 2011

Is Korea Ready for the “Third Oil Shock?”

By Florence Lowe-Lee

International oil prices have risen dramatically, raising the possibility of a “third oil shock.” During the first oil crisis in 1973, the annual average price...

May 25, 2011

A Firestorm in Korea over U.S. Beef

By Troy Stangarone

After more than two years of negotiation, false starts, and delay, Korea announced in April its intention to fully open its market to imports of...

May 25, 2011

It’s All in the Golf Cart: President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak, Visits the United States

By Julia B. Cunico

For Korea watchers—and particularly for those of us who worked closely on events associated with President Lee’s visit to Washington—April was a very rewarding month....

May 25, 2011

Restructured Executive Branch Under President Lee

By James H. Alvis

As reported in the previous issue of Korea Insight (“The Bulldozer Moves In: Lee Myung-bak is Inaugurated as the Republic of Korea’s President”), President Lee...