Asia

A successful KORUS FTA could position Korea among the top three electronics manufacturing countries, according to a senior researcher from the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics. The Korea Herald cited…

Confucianism has influenced gender roles more than any other factor in Korean society. Traditionally, women’s roles were limited to household matters, and young girls were taught to prepare for their…

For those following developments in the Korean auto industry, the first quarter of 2006 has certainly proven to be anything but mundane. Recent headlines have touted the further expansion of…

There are growing signs that Korea’s economy is growing in a more sustainable manner after a long battle to overcome the depressive effects of household debt problems and a reluctance…

In this episode, Korea Economic Institute’s Director of Communications Chad 0Carroll speaks with Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations. Having written a number of publications on U.S. relations…

In this episode, Korea Economic Institute’s Director of Public Affairs and Regional Issues Sarah Yun speaks with Dr. Andrei Lankov of Kookimin University. Having written a number of books on…

In this episode, new Korean Kontext presenter speaks with Curtis Melvin, the man behind the NK Econ Watch blog and developer of “North Korea Uncovered”, a Google Map overlay that…

In this episode, we speak with Kevin O’Donnell, who, after decades on a private sector career path, became the first-ever Peace Corps country director for South Korea, followed by a…

The digital trade landscape in South Korea offers significant opportunities for U.S. companies, but it also presents a range of challenges. As one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, South Korea is a lucrative market for digital trade. However, U.S. companies eager to tap into this potential face various challenges, including regulatory…

For decades, U.S. foreign assistance has played a pivotal role in advancing U.S. interests, strengthening alliances, and promoting stability in key regions of the world. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Asia, where U.S. development cooperation with South Korea—itself a model for the benefits of U.S. foreign assistance—has been a vital tool for…

South Korea’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement sets a target of reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40 percent by 2030 (relative to their peak in 2018). Korea also aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 (Figure 1, Panel A). The targets are ambitious, as Korea was the world’s thirteenth-largest GHG…

In the early weeks after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempted imposition of martial law and his subsequent impeachment by the National Assembly, the response in Japan among foreign policy specialists and in the mass media was uniformly supportive, even admiring, of the resilience of Korea’s democratic institutions. “Yoon’s action was undemocratic and inexcusable,” a senior…