Asia

South Korea is currently engaged, once again, in a large-scale, expensive modernization of its military that aims to provide the country with a more robust and self-sufficient defense. The timing…

Globalization is a hallmark of the twenty first-century world. As transportation and telecommunications grow in both efficiency and level of performance and as the ambit of the Internet expands, it…

The penetration of the Internet in Korean society is usually seen as a positive development, perhaps even a model for other countries; more efficient bureaucracy, more political figures making use…

In the field of international security, few connections have been made between the Korean peninsula with the Middle East. Traditional regional studies literature focuses on Korean issues within the Asia…

Volcanologist Dr. Kayla Iacovino traveled to North Korea in 2013 as part of a team that was collaborating with North Korean scientists to study Mt. Baekdu, one of Korea's most…

Nicholas Hamisevicz has been KEI's director of research and academic affairs for four years. Now, he is leaving KEI to pursue his Ph.D at Catholic University. But before he goes,…

Within China, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is a principle stakeholder in Beijing’s policy decision-making. In recent years, PLA officials have penned some of the more interesting, and forceful, articles…

Over the past few years, North Korea has been holding press conferences starring so-called re-defectors – people who fled to the South and chose to return. Researchers Steven Denney and…

A popular online joke last week went something like this: “The leaders of South Korea and Moon Jae-in came to New York.” While the band’s global popularity is unmistakable, the fact that members of a Korean pop band were on the floor of the United Nations addressing world leaders remains no less surprising. The band was reprising its…

North Korea’s real GDP fell by 4.5% in 2020, according to the estimate announced by the Bank of Korea (BoK) at the end of July (Figure 1). It was the steepest decline since 1997 during the “Arduous March,” when North Korea was hit by famine. The downturn last year was caused in part by measures to contain…

What Happened On September 16, the National Police Agency announced that they are planning to release a new public safety strategy by October 2021. This strategy includes launching a task force to study the use of robots for street patrol. The military has also stated that it wants to incorporate “moving robots” and an artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance system…

History, politics, and geopolitics are ever-present in Northeast Asia - and they are increasingly part of the media landscape. The controversy surrounding the Chinese war movie “The Sacrifice” is only the most recent reminder. Produced to commemorate the anniversary of Beijing’s unofficial entry into the Korean War, the film depicts the last large-scale Chinese offensive…