Asia

President Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory in 2007. His popularity before the election was obvious, and it came as a surprise to almost no one that he won by…

Korea and Japan are two key allies of the United States in East Asia. These two countries are “window models” of postwar democratization and economic advancement in a free world.…

On 19 October 1983 in Kim Jong-il’s office at the Central Party Building in Pyongyang, a private conversation took place between Kim and two South Korean filmmakers: director Shin Sang-ok…

The world can only hope the recent U.S.-North Korean bilateral discussions will revive the six-power talks and lead to Pyongyang’s renunciation of its nuclear weapons ambitions. Hope, however, is not…

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…

South Korea has faced political paralysis since President Yoon Suk Yeol’s December 3, 2024, declaration of martial law, the rapid reversal of that decision by the National Assembly, and the ensuing crisis. The Constitutional Court will decide on April 4, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. KST whether to uphold the Assembly’s decision to impeach President Yoon.…

The digital trade landscape in South Korea offers significant opportunities for U.S. companies, but it also presents a range of challenges. As one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, South Korea is a lucrative market for digital trade. However, U.S. companies eager to tap into this potential face various challenges, including regulatory…

For decades, U.S. foreign assistance has played a pivotal role in advancing U.S. interests, strengthening alliances, and promoting stability in key regions of the world. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Asia, where U.S. development cooperation with South Korea—itself a model for the benefits of U.S. foreign assistance—has been a vital tool for…

South Korea’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement sets a target of reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40 percent by 2030 (relative to their peak in 2018). Korea also aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 (Figure 1, Panel A). The targets are ambitious, as Korea was the world’s thirteenth-largest GHG…