Asia

In the spring of 2009, North Korea’s second nuclear test, its long-range missile tests, and its provocative rhetoric once again threatened stability in Northeast Asia. Once again, North Korea engaged…

What impact will a rising China have on the North Pacific security environment? A close examination of recent developments in Beijing’s approach to dealing with North Korea yields insights into…

The last two years have seen a series of changes affecting regionalism in North- east Asia. One category of changes has been the crises in the areas of economy and…

Two years and nine months have passed since Korea and the United States put their signatures on the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). Nei- ther Korea nor the United…

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…

By Jenna Gibson For South Korean children, studying abroad and mastering English used to be the key to success, prompting waves of students to head overseas for their diplomas. Now, South Korea is the third largest source of international students studying in the United States, behind only China and India. But this trend may be…

By Phil Eskeland Commentators on both sides of the political spectrum have used North Korea and Iran interchangeably to buttress their position on the negotiations to corral Iran’s nuclear weapons ambition.  Some argue that the Iran deal will not work just like the 1994 nuclear deal with North Korea.  Others argue that the Iranian deal…

By Mark Tokola Short conversations about North Korea generally end with similar conclusions: it is too soon to tell whether Kim Jong-un has successfully entrenched himself; the North Korean economy whether by design or necessity has introduced some market elements; China is growing impatient with North Korea’s unpredictability and belligerency; and Kim Jung-un’s regime is…

By Mark Tokola People who have worked on policy towards North Korea for some time often remark that nothing really changes: the DPRK’s weapons programs progress, gross human rights violations continue, bad crop years are met with international appeals for food assistance, acts of aggression against South Korea occur periodically, and North Korean propaganda threatens…