Asia

Free elections are not part of North Korea’s political fabric, but Kim Jong-Il and his advisors are undoubtedly aware that the regime’s legitimacy will be challenged if it fails to…

From Kia, with Love: Korean Greenfield Investment Revives a Community On Friday, February 26, in a flashy rock concert atmosphere, a much awaited and well attended ribbon cutting ceremony took…

Beginning of Korea-India Relations, Shrouded in Legend Every year, India traditionally invites a foreign head of state to attend the anniversary of the establishment of the Indian Republic in 1950.…

Korea is a relative newcomer to the negotiation of bilateral FTAs, concluding its first agreement with Chile only in 2003. Prior to engaging in bilateral FTAs, Korea emphasized the multilateral…

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…

Both North Korea and South Korea sought to redefine their relationship in 2024. In the past, both countries have publicly affirmed that the unification of the two Koreas is a national priority, but the two governments have engaged in low-level hostilities and high-level denunciations, while little concrete effort has been made to bring the two…

South Korea faced the prospect of political paralysis and a protracted constitutional crisis resulting from the declaration of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol and its dismissal hours later by a National Assembly resolution. On December 3, Yoon announced at 22:25 his intent to impose martial law “to eradicate pro-North Korea forces and protect…

If we thought North Korea and Russia grew too close for comfort in 2023, they continued to surprise the world this year by taking bold and unprecedented steps to elevate their relations to new heights. The highlights are the new “DPRK-Russia Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” signed during Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June, and…

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s signal foreign policy achievement is arguably the forging of trilateral security cooperation between the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan and the United States. During the past year, the leaders of all three nations have moved unusually quickly to institutionalize the structure of cooperation. The desire to consolidate progress seems to have…