Asia

This chapter examines the nature and motivations of North Korea’s sharp power toward South Korea. Unlike China or Russia, to secure long-term survival, North Korea ultimately needs cooperation from the…

Trade ties between the United States and many East Asian countries have faced a high degree of uncertainty since Donald Trump took office in early 2017. The world is now…

Since entering office in 2017, President Trump has upended longstanding tenets of U.S. trade policy and launched the most aggressive set of new U.S. tariffs and trade restrictions since at…

The U.S.-South Korea relationship has traditionally been characterized as a security alliance, meeting the interests of both countries for a stable Korean Peninsula. Economically, Korea was a major recipient of…

From 1966 to 1981, around 2,000 Peace Corps volunteers lived and worked in South Korea. After returning to the United States, many volunteers wanted a way to share their Korean…

October 2015 will mark 25 years since the official reunification of East and West Germany. Meanwhile, the Korean Peninsula remains divided. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye has referenced Germany many…

The Eugene Bell Foundation has been working in the DPRK for 20 years. Now they focus on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a deadly disease that is incredibly expensive and time-consuming to…

In the recent agreement between Seoul and Pyeongyang to defuse tensions along the DMZ, the two governments included a promise to "vitalize" non-governmental organization (NGO) exchanges in various fields.   …

South Korea has faced political paralysis since President Yoon Suk Yeol’s December 3, 2024, declaration of martial law, the rapid reversal of that decision by the National Assembly, and the ensuing crisis. The Constitutional Court will decide on April 4, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. KST whether to uphold the Assembly’s decision to impeach President Yoon.…

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…