Asia

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…

The purpose of this research is to identify an exchange rate regime that would be suitable for North Korea to achieve its goal of economic reform. To do so, we…

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…

The potential growth rate – the level of output that an economy can produce at a constant inflation rate – in Korea has declined steadily from 5.0% during 1997-2006 to 2.7% during 2017-20, according to the OECD (Figure 1). The OECD projects that it will slow further to 2.2% from 2021-23. The Bank of Korea…

On March 9, South Korean voters will select their next president for a five-year term.  The South Korean constitution limits presidents to a single term, so there is no incumbent in the race. The presidential campaign is a contest between Lee Jae-myung, candidate of the progressive Democratic Party of current president Moon Jae-in, and Yoon…

What Happened: In January 2022, Indonesia announced a ban on coal exports. Indonesian coal accounts for 20% of Seoul’s total coal imports. In response, the South Korean government urged the Indonesian government to remove the ban on coal exports. Despite these actions, the South Korean government officially stated that Indonesia’s ban on coal exports would…

What Happened: The ruling party’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung announced his plan to raise income per capita to USD 50,000, elevate the country’s hard power, and reach KOSPI stock index of 5,000. Polling two days after this speech showed that Lee led the race with 36 percent against his main opponent’s 26 percent. According to…