Asia

The Fall 2024 issue of Korea Policy, Broadening the Alliance: New Frontiers in US-South Korea Cooperation, is a special issue focused on the US-ROK alliance. The issue is motivated by…

The Joe Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol administrations have embraced the expansion of economic cooperation within the US-ROK alliance, leading to the emergence of South Korea as a valued technology partner…

The security alliance between the United States and South Korea, once focused primarily on military defense, is evolving to include economic security and technological cooperation. The evolving partnership between the…

This paper elucidates how Washington and Seoul cooperate on AI and quantum technologies, both recognized as critical emerging technologies essential to their national interests. Technology cooperation is denoted as government-to-government…

Spanning nearly a century and multiple generations, Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel Pachinko tells the story of a Korean family struggling to find their place in Japan before, during, and after…

A woman in hanbok joyfully rises above Mt. Baekdu, arms raised, in a art piece entitled Umma Rises: Towards Global Peace. This is just one of many recent art pieces…

A group of women gossiping about the new neighbor. A feisty middle schooler using a homemade drone to prank his classmates. A young military officer seeking information from his past.…

With President Donald Trump finishing up his first official trip to Asia, including a stop in South Korea last week, this week's episode of Korean Kontext asks: what do South…

Earlier this month, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released another report detailing the dire human rights situation in North Korea. Echoing earlier pronouncements, UN investigators cited escapee testimony to say that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed and may be ongoing in…

2020 marked the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea) and Myanmar (Burma). In less than half a century, bilateral ties went from strained by geopolitical competition and terrorism to a strengthening partnership with economic, development, and diplomatic cooperation.[i] The February 2021 coup in Myanmar—in which the military…

What Happened Climate change activists criticized plans to develop a new airport in the Busan region. Both the ruling and opposition parties have lauded the airport project as a potential harbinger for further local development as it will connect the city of Busan and its surrounding area to Southeast Asia. Activists in Jeju Island also worry that the construction of…

What Happened On February 9, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification discussed potentially reopening the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un agreed to reopen the complex in 2018. However, North Korea has not shown any willingness to cooperate on inter-Korean issues at the moment, including the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Implications: Despite South Korea’s offer of economic…