Asia

This paper provides an analytical assessment of the implications for North and South Korea of recent changes in the Chinese-Russian and U.S.-Japanese security relationships.The evolution of these two security relationships…

During the past few years, the United States has begun three important initiatives that alter its defense commitment to South Korea (Republic of Korea [ROK]). First, Washington started to decrease…

In October 2006, Kim Jong-il’s North Korea again seized international attention. With its claimed underground nuclear test, Pyongyang upped the ante in its confrontation with the United States and the…

2018 has been an incredibly eventful year for both the Koreas and the U.S.-Korea relationship: from North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympics at the start of the year to…

Interest in the Korean peninsula is generally very narrow in the United States – it tends to be focused on North Korea and security issues, particularly the country's ballistic and…

Last Friday, on November 30, 2018, President George H.W. Bush passed away. In the days that followed, there were many discussions in the foreign policy community about the late president's…

What does a unified Korea look like? Beyond the question of whether the government of this new country will be a unitary or federal one, how will the people –…

 What Happened: President Moon Jae-in vowed to focus more on increasing housing supply to discipline runaway real estate prices. The government attributed the failure of its previous effort to deliver affordable housing to the growth of households despite the shrinking population. The administration plans to develop more housing sites near train stations in Seoul and surrounding areas…

For North Korea to return to some semblance of its pre-COVID existence it will need to vaccinate its population, but acquiring the necessary vaccines will not be the only challenge North Korea faces. Once North Korea has acquired a vaccine to begin dosing its population, it will still need to have a proper cold chain…

What Happened Severe Disaster Law was passed to protect employees working in environments with insufficient safety regulations. While the new legislation intensifies punishments for chief executives, it does not provide supplementary safety regulations. The effectiveness of the new bill is questioned as workplaces with fewer than 5 employees are not affected by the new legislation despite…

What Happened The ruling Democratic Party is developing a plan to incentivize big corporations to share part of their profits with entities that were heavily affected by COVID-19. The ruling party wants to promote voluntary participation through incentives such as tax benefits and administrative support. Some National Assembly delegates and policy commentators voiced their demand for more…