Asia

In recent years, South Korea has been addressing climate change, including through investments in hydrogen, the Green New Deal, and international pledges to cut emissions by 40 percent from 2018…

In recent years, North Korea has faced economic shocks from UN sanctions and the pandemic. As Dr. Jongkyu Lee (Senior Fellow at the Korea Development Institute) writes in his new…

Following a record number of North Korean missile launches, as well as tests by South Korea, assertions have been widely and uncritically made that Seoul is participating in an inter-Korean…

Although the Korean Peninsula has been divided for over 70 years, North and South have not been able to make lasting progress in terms of reconciliation. While there are multiple…

In this episode of Korean Kontext, guest host Kyle Ferrier, KEI's director of academic affairs and research, sits down with Korea Society President Tom Byrne. Before joining the Korea Society…

Ever since Myanmar's political and economic opening several years ago, countries have been looking to get in on the ground floor to build ties with this emerging economy in Southeast…

Ever since last summer, when South Korea and the United States announced they would be deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to the peninsula, China…

Much has been discussed about the power of outside information to open the eyes of the North Korean people and convince them of the truth about the outside world. Some…

What Happened The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy announced earlier this week to put some nuclear reactors back in operation to meet the public’s energy demand amid the ongoing heatwave. The government is also urging businesses and the public to roll back their electricity consumption as current demand threatens to outstrip supply. The increased demand for electricity has…

As K-pop’s popularity expands beyond South Korea, industry leaders are expanding to the American market by joining hands with large American record labels – HYBE, the entertainment company that manages the popular band BTS, announced a partnership with Universal Music Group. Meanwhile, another major South Korean entertainment company SM signed a similar agreement with MGM. These partnerships hope…

What Happened Last week, South Korea’s top policymakers discussed plans for dealing with the country’s low birth rate and the falling size of the country’s working-age population. One proposed measure calls for extending after-school childcare services to encourage mothers to focus more on work. However, parents and teachers’ groups are criticizing the government’s plan saying what is really needed…

What Happened Shipping terminals in Busan are struggling to find cargo space for their clients because global carriers are prioritizing goods from China’s factory belt over those from South Korea. The trade disruption caused by the pandemic led to a reduction in the number of available shipping containers in Asia. The lack of shipping containers is especially hitting smaller…