Asia

After the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) is approved by the legislatures of Korea and the United States, it will likely provide a turning point for the countries’ bilateral…

The denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) continues to be a source of considerable international concern. Yet, no coherent international framework has emerged to deal with this…

Korea is arguably the premier development success story of the last half century. Despite this success, there has been a nagging sense among many observers that the development of Korea’s…

The unique restriction of a one-time, five-year presidential term in the Republic of Korea (ROK) has often resulted in short-lived changes to the way the nation’s chief executive has staffed…

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…

By Gerard Krzic Anyone visiting Korea and sightseeing at a rural Buddhist temple usually passes over a stone bridge that crosses a stream or river before entering the main temple grounds.  It has been said that the bridge represents crossing oceans as one moves from the land of daily hardships to the land of enlightenment…

By Mehrun Etebari Yesterday, during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the experience of North Korea – who reached an agreement to dismantle its nuclear program in 2005, but tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006 – must warn the international community to refrain from optimism…

By David S. Maxwell As we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the 1953 ROK/U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty we should keep in mind that celebrate is the right word for Koreans and Americans to attach to this milestone.  We can proudly look back on its success. In so doing we should realize that it remains relevant…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz In their first two years, Kim Jong-un and the collective leadership in North Korea have found various ways to kill the momentum of positive interaction with North Korea’s neighbors. While Pyongyang has given with one hand with the recent return of its workers to the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), it has taken…