Domestic

This week, Congress introduced 2 articles of impeachment against President Trump. One for abuse of power and one for obstruction of Congress. The ongoing confrontation between the White House and…

While it is frustrating to see North Korean projectiles flying out to sea and Pyongyang’s erratic, unpredictable reactions in negotiations, we cannot forget where things stood in 2017 – the…

30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people’s aspiration to establish a pluralistic liberal democracy appears to be under scrutiny around the world – anti-immigration policies dominate political…

In March, a curious protest took place in Seoul. Private kindergartens were going on strike. Protests by industry groups or workers are not uncommon in South Korea, but something about…

South Korea’s new safety law, the Serious Disasters Punishments Act (SAPA), holds executives criminally responsible for workplace accidents that result in death due to lax safety measures. If convicted, they could face one year in prison or a fine of over USD 800,000. SAPA seeks to address the prevalence of safety noncompliance in industrial workplaces…

Labor market dualism – the segmentation between regular and non-regular workers -- is deeply entrenched in Korea’s labor market. Regular workers receive higher wages and social insurance coverage and a high degree of job security, while non-regular workers receive lower wages, are less likely to be covered by social insurance and work in precarious jobs.…

In a previous post, we asked the question of whether the Korean electorate was becoming more polarized, looking at the ideological differences across all citizens and those who identified most strongly with the two major parties. Our findings were that politics was becoming somewhat more polarized, but more sharply among partisans than the general public.…

What Happened: Seoul municipal government is launching a pilot welfare project to provide monthly subsidies to low-income earners. The project is set to assist 800 households in the bottom 33% income bracket over the next three years. Last year, South Korea ranked fourth highest in relative poverty among the 38 Organization of Economic Cooperation and…

The conversation will be livestreamed on YouTube.

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.

Please join KEI for a discussion on American attitudes towards the Korean Peninsula after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Please join KEI for a discussion on how COVID-19 has affected the growing rivalry between the United States and China.