Asia

Why is South Korea pilot-testing its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and what made it shift from non-issuance to consideration? This paper investigates the Bank of Korea (BOK)’s CBDC-related developments…

How is the increasing spread of artificial intelligence (AI) likely to shape the cyber capabilities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK; North Korea) in the coming years? Over…

In this new article of KEI’s Korea’s Economy,  Dr. Bark Taeho (President of the Global Commerce Institute of Lee & Ko and Former Minister for Trade) notes that Korea has faced…

The COVID-19 pandemic caught almost all countries unprepared. Some countries, including South Korea (hereafter Korea), managed to deal with the pandemic relatively more successfully than others and had a proactive…

For many years, South Korea has been a homogeneous country. But with more foreigners coming to live in Korea, that is starting to change. In fact, the Korea Institute for…

In early July, the United States and South Korea announced that they had come to an agreement to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system near the city…

With Election 2016 well underway, KEI's very own Phil Eskeland has been closely following how both the Republican and Democratic parties have been talking about foreign policy and Asia. He…

In the late 1930s, nearly 200,000 ethnic Koreans were forcibly removed from the Soviet Far East, packed into trains and sent to Central Asia. More than 70 years later, their…

After North Korea's diplomatic outreach to Russia last year, observers are wondering if Japan will be the next target of its engagement. In January, Chairman Kim Jong-un issued a rare message of condolence after an earthquake devastated the Noto Peninsula in northern Japan. The Japanese side acknowledged the message, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio reiterated…

In the past few years, US tech companies and their advocates have leveled strong criticisms against digital regulation around the world. While the European Union (EU) has been the main target, proposed regulation in other countries has also raised concerns. Recently, there has been a push from a range of Washington, DC policy voices, including…

While the theme of the Summit for Democracy hosted by Korea this year was “Democracy for Future Generations,” the predominant undertone appears to have been the role that artificial intelligence (AI) will have in shaping it. Accordingly, during a time where authoritarianism is on the rise, elections are challenged, and political systems are under threat,…

Time is running out regarding threats to the world’s undersea cables: The world needs to start acting, rather than just discussing the problem, since more attacks on this critical infrastructure are happening in reality. South Korea is well-positioned to become a leader in creating a new regime that regulates the undersea cable industry. As one…