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…

This week, we delve into how Japan views the security threat from China, and how these perceptions shape Japanese policy. For this, we turn to security expert Dr. Narushige Michishita.…

Last week, North Korea launched its Seventh Worker's Party Congress, a major meeting of regime leaders that has not been convened in 36 years. Although analysts had high expectations for…

In this episode, we take a step back from the Korean Peninsula and take a look at Northeast Asia from the perspective of one of its neighbors – Russia. In…

On May 1, South Korean President Park Geun-hye will travel to Tehran, Iran for a summit meeting with her counterpart, President Hassan Rouhani. This visit will be the first time a…

What Happened The ruling Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung proposed another round of universal payments to help citizens overcome the economic challenges posed by COVID-19. However, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum and the government claimed that they do not have the capacity to provide another round of universal relief funds. A nationwide public poll showed that 60.1% of Koreans agree…

Observing the recent success of the TV show Squid Game on Netflix, many commenters suggest that the entry of multinational streaming platforms has been a net positive for Korea’s creative industry. The streaming platform has invested over USD 700 million into projects such as Kingdom and Sweet Home. For smaller Korean content creators, Netflix offers…

Korea’s real GDP increased 1.2% (saar) in 2021Q3, a significant slowdown from the first two quarters of the year, reflecting a decline in private consumption (table below). A tightening of social distancing measures since July, aimed at slowing a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, reduced spending on “consumer-facing services”. For example, demand in the food…

What Happened One of South Korea’s major telecommunications providers KT suffered a nationwide outage on October 25, causing widespread disruptions to daily tasks that require internet connectivity such as virtual classes, food delivery orders, and stock trading. A National Assembly hearing five days before the incident questioned telecommunications providers about the quality of the network services. The government still intends to…