Asia

For Southeast Asia, the COVID-19 pandemic was not only a public health crisis. It also provided an occasion for China to deepen its engagement in the region by dint of…

COVID-19 has not gone away, and observers are now discussing possible long-term effects of the pandemic, including on geopolitics. A report by the European Parliament discussed five COVID-generated factors that…

The coronavirus pandemic that struck in late 2019 has affected the world profoundly, and Japan is no exception. But the direct impact on Japan has been relatively small considering the…

The national identity gap between China and the United States has become increasingly apparent. Under Xi Jinping, China has sought to reclaim its historical greatness and proclaimed itself to be…

When you hear about trilateral cooperation between the United States, South Korea and Japan in the news, people are usually talking about how these three countries can work together to…

In this episode, Korean Kontext speaks with Ms. Jie-ae Sohn, President of Arirang TV & Radio, Korea's first English language international broadcast system. Ms. Sohn worked as the former CNN…

Last week, the news of a high-level defection by a North Korean diplomat stationed in London captivated North Korea watchers. For the next few says, analysts and the media speculated…

Ghosts and goblins are everywhere in Korean folktales, causing havoc for people through their antics. Equally common are the shamans who act as intermediaries, helping offer solutions to life's supernatural…

The government of North Korea continues to report that it has no cases of COVID-19.  In its most recent submission to the World Health Organization on April 1, Pyongyang reported that it had tested a total of 23,121 people for the coronavirus as of April 1.  It said that all results were negative. For a…

What Happened During a speech commemorating the 1948 Jeju Uprising, Moon Jae-in highlighted a recently-revised National Assembly bill that will strengthen compensation for victims of this historical event. This is the fourth year in a row that Moon has spoken in a ceremony recognizing the Jeju Uprising and its victims, and he is the second president to…

By Stephan Haggard A review of Guns, Guerillas and the Great Leader by Benjamin Young (Stanford University Press, 2021) A recent trend in the diplomatic history of the postwar period is to de-center the focus on the major powers and pay more attention to how developing countries forged relations with one another. Reflective of this…

What Happened During recent talks, the Chinese FM raised the idea of joint dialogue to reach a political resolution between North and South Korea. China also voiced support for South Korea’s goals of peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The two foreign ministers discussed holding a future 2+2 meeting with diplomatic and security officials from…