2004 Posts located
In September 2008, reports began to circulate in the world media that Chairman Kim Jong-il might be in serious condition after having suffered a stroke, and discussion on possible post-Kim…
Despite the clear benefits of KORUS FTA for the United States and Korea, it has been stalled for nearly 18 months due to disputes over U.S. beef and the sale…
In important respects this conference reflected two somewhat contrasting perspectives on the just completed U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). Those two perspectives, the one dealing principally with specifically economic…
The global crisis that was ignited by the meltdown in the U.S. subprime mortgage market is a dramatic illustration of just how interdependent our economic and financial systems have become.…
From 1966 to 1981, around 2,000 Peace Corps volunteers lived and worked in South Korea. After returning to the United States, many volunteers wanted a way to share their Korean…
October 2015 will mark 25 years since the official reunification of East and West Germany. Meanwhile, the Korean Peninsula remains divided. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye has referenced Germany many…
The Eugene Bell Foundation has been working in the DPRK for 20 years. Now they focus on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a deadly disease that is incredibly expensive and time-consuming to…
In the recent agreement between Seoul and Pyeongyang to defuse tensions along the DMZ, the two governments included a promise to "vitalize" non-governmental organization (NGO) exchanges in various fields. …
The drop in Korea’s total fertility rate to 0.78 in 2022 has heightened concerns about the impact of rapid population aging and decline. Despite numerous government initiatives, such as introducing free early childhood education and care in 2012, the fertility rate has continued to edge down. Korea’s median age jumped from 33.6 years in 2005…
On July 18, 2023, U.S. Army soldier Pvt Travis King, who was on a civilian tour of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone that marks the boundary between South Korea and North Korea) bolted from the tour group and sprinted onto the North Korean side of the boundary. He was chased by soldiers guarding the south side…
Earlier this year, President Yoon Suk Yeol took steps to stabilize relations with Japan. Since then relations have been advanced through two bilateral summits, a meeting at the G7, and an expected trilateral summit later this August with the United States. Despite these advances, there are issues that could still constrain relations, specifically Japan’s plan…
President Yoon Suk Yeol presided over the Presidential Committee on an Aging Society and Population Policy in March. It was the first time that a president had attended a meeting of the Committee since 2015, reflecting rising concern over the decline in Korea’s total fertility rate to 0.78 in 2022 (Figure 1). It is the…