Asia

This paper examines South Korea’s foreign policy towards China before, during, and after the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense dispute to investigate the limits of South Korea’s…

The Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI), with the generous support of the Korea Foundation, organized six “Vision Group” roundtable conversations with leading American scholars and commentators to discuss the…

The Moon administration in South Korea has implemented rapid changes to accelerate the decarbonization of the energy sector. While seeking to embrace renewables, Seoul has been relying on the bridging…

North Korea’s ballistic missile program has long been a concern for the United States, South Korea, and Japan. Foreign researchers have increasingly leveraged advanced open source intelligence technology and cooperated…

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…

What Happened South Korea plans to resume in-person classes for all students in the fall. Ahead of this full reopening, the government expanded the maximum in-person attendance for middle school students in the Seoul metropolitan area in mid-June. This decision comes on the heels of a new study that showed declining academic achievement levels among some middle school students. Implications: The…

Taiwan is one of the most sensitive issues concerning China, so it was with some surprise to see it raised at the U.S.-ROK summit held in May. Underscoring shared support for the rules-based international order, the joint statement released after the summit said: “President Biden and President Moon emphasize the importance of preserving peace and…

What Happened On June 7, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced it discovered 16 cases of suspicious land transactions involving 12 lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party (DP) – potentially suggesting their involvement in a speculation scheme. Although the commission said it was unable to release the DP lawmakers’ names, the DP leadership decided to release their names…

Outside observers sometimes interpret the adoption of South Korean pop culture trends by North Korea’s state-sanctioned outlets as symbols of the regime buckling under the internal demand for change. The implicit hope is that cultural imitation of South Korea will lead to Pyongyang’s liberalization in other areas, particularly the economy and the political structure. People…