Asia

The Moon Jae-in administration in South Korea has taken a two-pronged approach to ensure urgently needed job creation and inclusive growth. Although measures towards each set of economic policies have…

Beef trade was a major sticking point between the United States and South Korea in ratifying the KORUS FTA. The outcome of the renegotiations that led to the March 2018…

Science diplomacy is becoming increasingly popular in foreign policy. Branching out of public diplomacy, science diplomacy is a sophisticated and knowledge-based toolkit to secure and promote foreign policy objectives. Unlike…

The sudden announcement of a North Korea-U.S. summit in March 2018 upended all previous diplomacy concerning North Korea’s nuclear program. In return for a bilateral presidential summit, Pyongyang has agreed…

  With the recent retirement by Yi So-yeon, South Korea’s remaining astronaut, many have turned attention to Korea, wondering whether there is a future for its space program. According to Daniel Pinkston of the…

      Since the famine of the 1990s, North Korea has continued to face periods of chronic food shortages. However, the humanitarian needs of the people in North Korea…

    North Korea has engaged in various forms of economic reforms and marketization attempts such as establishing Special Economic Zones and obtaining Foreign Direct Investment. Yet, many of North…

    In this episode, we talk with Dr. Yiagadeesen Samy of Carleton University on income inequality in South Korea and its affect on Korea’s economy. Dr. Samy is an economist…

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…