Asia

With negotiations running down to the wire, Korean and American negotiators announced that they reached a deal just before President George W. Bush’s trade promotion authority expired at 11:59 pm…

While foreign direct investment (FDI) into South Korea has been waning, outward Korean investment has been robust over the past year. According to The Korea Times, foreign investment in Korea…

This past June, President Bush made a series of telephone calls to leaders in the region calling on them to use their influence with Pyongyang in an effort to halt…

Korea’s labor unions are known for their militancy. This characteristic is believed to be the result of past political repression and perceived economic inequality. Since the 1960s, Korea has achieved…

    In the mid-1990s, North Korea experienced a famine that by some estimates wiped out 10 percent of the population. Though many at the time thought the regime would…

      Over the last decade, China has become an increasingly important country for South Korea has it has emerged as Seoul’s largest trading partner and a leading player…

    On April 8, North Korea withdrew all of its workers from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, temporarily placing on hold the last form of cooperation between North and South…

South Korea’s nuclear energy industry has for decades been facilitated through close cooperation with counterparts in the United States under what is known as a “123 Agreement”.  Today South Korea’s…

By Troy Stangarone South Korea’s ambition to become a regional free trade hub in East Asia took another step towards reality as South Korea and China announced the outline of a conclusion of their bilateral FTA negotiations at the opening of the 2014 APEC summit. Once the FTA has been implemented, Korea will find itself…

By Adam Cathcart As the rest of the world gets accustomed to seeing Kim Jong-un walk with a cane, we might do well to figure out what, if anything, is changing about the way that the broader North Korean state engages with the economic powerhouses that engulf its southern and northern peripheries. KEI's Director of…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz After not being seen in public for over a month, surely Kim Jong-un would be at the 69th anniversary celebrations for the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea today. But, there was no sighting. The conspicuous absence of Kim Jong-un will continue to fuel speculation about his health, about the current…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz In a surprising move, North and South Korea held a high level meeting shortly before the closing of the Asian Games. While Kim Jong-un’s whereabouts are still unknown, the perceived number two official in North Korea, a closely connected leader with Kim Jong-un, and the person in charge of North Korean relations…