Asia

South Korean–Middle Eastern relations have been neglected in the literature throughout the years, mainly owing to the focus on Korea’s relations with the United States and Asian states and the…

An old Korean proverb says that when two whales fight it is the shrimps whose backs are crushed. Maybe that proverb best describes Korea’s situation on the trade front these…

The Domestic and International Politics of Spent Nuclear Fuel in South Korea: Are We Approaching Meltdown?

Geography alone would give Russia a prominent role in the Korean peninsula. The Russian Federation currently shares a recently demarcated 17-kilometer common border along the Tumen River with the Democratic…

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…

In this week's Asan Institute for Policy Studies polling President Lee Myung-bak saw his approval rating slowly rise back above 30 percent by the end of the week. In the presidential race Moon Jae-in passed Ahn Cheol-soo as the favored candidate of progressives and pulled within less than 3 percent of Park Geun-hye in the…

By Sarah K. Yun As leaders of the Asia-Pacific nations gathered for the 20th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting in Vladivostok, Russia on September 8-9, the ongoing effects of the euro crisis and global financial crisis added urgency to their efforts to increase regional economic growth and give APEC a leading role in the…

In this week's South Korea polling data from the Asan Institute for Policy Studies most of the races remained largely unchanged. President Lee Myung-bak's approval rating remained below 30 percent for the entire week and the progressive candidates support remained largely flat. Park Geun-hye did open up a 5 percent lead in the head-to-head match up…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz Last week North Korea and Japan held their first government-to-government talks in four years. These discussions seemed to be a part of a summer of diplomatic outreach by North Korea. The meetings centered on handling the remains of Japanese soldiers that were killed on the Korean peninsula during World War II. Japan…