Asia

Seoul has gradually adopted a more outspoken position regarding the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and framed it in increasingly expansive terms—as a regional and global…

The development of the concept of the Indo-Pacific strategy, since its adoption by the United States in 2017, has primarily been driven by the emergence of China as an object…

While the use of the term “Indo-Pacific” is relatively new, debates about its use echo longstanding arguments about how the region should be defined: who is in, who is out,…

In this special episode of Korean Kontext, KEI's Juni Kim sat down with three North Korean defectors who have settled in South Korea. Each of them has a different story…

On May 10, former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-In officially became the next president of South Korea, filling an office that had been empty since former President Park Geun-Hye's impeachment…

The upcoming presidential election in Korea on May 9th will place many key issues under the microscope. One meriting serious consideration that has featured less prominently in the political discourse…

After the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex last year, economic ties between North and South Korea have all but ceased. And as sanctions measures continue to tighten, the international…

By Juni Kim The start of the South Korean general election campaign on April 17th marked the final stretch of the shortened election season. With absentee voting set to start this week, voters have until Election Day on May 9th to make their final decisions and fill the presidential vacancy created by the impeachment of…

By Jenna Gibson It’s official – new numbers from March confirm that China’s THAAD retaliation has significantly cut into South Korea’s tourism industry. According to new data released today by the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in South Korea fell 40 percent year-on-year in March 2017. Only 360,782 Chinese visitors came…

This is the first in a series of blogs looking at South Korea's foreign relations in the run up to the next Korean administration taking office on May 10. The series also includes blogs on relations with North Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia, the European Union, the Middle East, ASEAN, Africa, and Latin America. By Mark…

By Troy Stangarone Full first quarter data on trade between North Korea and China is not yet available, but data released by China’s General Administration of Customs raises interesting questions in regards to ongoing trade between China and North Korea. According to reports, total trade with North Korea grew 37.4 percent in the first quarter…