2004 Posts located
During the two-year period since the outbreak in August 2007 of the U.S. subprime crisis, Korea has felt its severe effects: Korea’s economy contracted sharply and experienced a liquidity crisis.…
There is certainly a place for regionalism in Northeast Asia.1 It already exists in various amorphous ways, but regional identity is relatively weak in Northeast Asia, and for this and…
The rise of China means that the regional (not global) power structure is shifting from unipolarity to bipolarity. Whether this is a positive or negative development depends on a particular…
The dramatic events of recent months—and, above all, North Korea’s second nuclear test and long-range missile launch—demonstrated once again that the Barack Obama administration and the international community at large…
With Washington DC stuck in a snowstorm, please enjoy this episode of Korean Kontext originally published in 2012. B.R. Myers is the author of “The Cleanest Race” and regular…
Every January, KEI publishes its predictions for the 10 issues to watch for on the Korean Peninsula in the coming year. Then, in December, we revisit our predictions to see…
North Korea watchers have been trying for years to understand the inner workings of the reclusive regime. With the country launching its 4th nuclear test this week, recognizing the structure and…
Every year on January 13, the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) sponsors a luncheon in Washington, DC to mark Korean American Day and recognize the local and national Korean…
Investment Announcements July 24, 2023: Samsung SDI announced plans to establish a second EV battery manufacturing “Gigafactory” facility as part of their StarPlus Energy joint venture with Stellantis. September 27, 2023: Samsung SDI announced it will inject $1.98 billion as part of its investment into a battery factory, reportedly near Kokomo, IN where its gigafactory…
Two decades ago, South Korea was rarely called a middle power. Today, it invites ridicule to suggest South Korea is anything but a middle power. Given the concept’s ambiguity and lackluster academic credentials, why did the definition become so widely applied? The immediate answer is obvious. South Korea started to be labeled a middle power…
There are a plethora of studies on South Korea as a middle power. Some argue Korea needs to change to fit the term, some reinvent the term to fit Korea, and still others just use the term without questioning. Very few ask why we bother at all. The modern term “middle power” is an historically…
Korea has faced persistent labor shortages since the late 1980s, centered on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which tend to pay low wages for low-skilled, non-regular jobs. SMEs have faced increasing difficulty in replacing retiring workers with young people, given the large education gap between generations. In 2021, 69% of the population aged 25 to…