Asia

This paper provides an analytical assessment of the implications for North and South Korea of recent changes in the Chinese-Russian and U.S.-Japanese security relationships.The evolution of these two security relationships…

During the past few years, the United States has begun three important initiatives that alter its defense commitment to South Korea (Republic of Korea [ROK]). First, Washington started to decrease…

In October 2006, Kim Jong-il’s North Korea again seized international attention. With its claimed underground nuclear test, Pyongyang upped the ante in its confrontation with the United States and the…

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…

President Moon Jae-in pledged in October 2020 that Korea will reach carbon neutrality by 2050, joining a number of European countries and Japan. With China aiming to be carbon neutral by 2060, Korea becomes the third big Asian economy to announce a target for achieving carbon neutrality. Korea’s objective is in line the Intergovernmental Panel…

What Happened Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for the second time for bribing former President Park Geun-hye’s close advisor. While the court gave Lee a shorter sentence than average for the crime, 46% of the Koreans in a survey believed that the punishment was too harsh. Recently, the Seoul Central District…

 What Happened: President Moon Jae-in vowed to focus more on increasing housing supply to discipline runaway real estate prices. The government attributed the failure of its previous effort to deliver affordable housing to the growth of households despite the shrinking population. The administration plans to develop more housing sites near train stations in Seoul and surrounding areas…

For North Korea to return to some semblance of its pre-COVID existence it will need to vaccinate its population, but acquiring the necessary vaccines will not be the only challenge North Korea faces. Once North Korea has acquired a vaccine to begin dosing its population, it will still need to have a proper cold chain…