Asia

The paper reviews some of the key aspects leading to Korea’s remarkably successful economic transformation, including its consistent and aggressive pursuit of export-led growth, its investments in basic services and…

Korea’s economic development is often cited as a model for other developing nations. One of about 60 countries whose per capita income was less than $300 in the 1960s, only…

Korea has shaken off some of the impacts brought by the Sewol ferry disaster, but its overall pace of growth is still very weak. The Korean economy is forecast to…

The Korean economy has faced several crises, such as the ending of the rapid economic growth era in the 21st century, continued stagnation of per capita GDP growth since 2007…

    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 Seongjin James Ahn While some were disappointed earlier this month that South Korea’s central bank decided against easing up on nation’s key interest rate, the Bank of Korea’s decision is exactly what the economy needs in this moment: prudence and restraint. Indeed, lowering the interest rate would have helped spur on South Korea’s economy…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz As countries in Asia emerge from this year of elections and transitions, the role and rise of China in the region will remain a top priority. For most of these countries, significant emphasis has been placed on the importance of positive U.S.-China relations in the region. This is especially true for South…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz A year of transitions finishes in historic fashion as South Korea elects Park Geun-hye as its first female president. Her election capped off a series of democratic presidential elections that featured nicely at the beginning and end of this year of transitions, leading off with Ma Ying-jeou winning reelection in Taiwan. Yet…

By Clare Hubbard One indicator of the difficulty that North Korean defectors have in assimilating to life in South Korea is crime statistics. The crime rate among North Korean defectors in South Korea is more than twice that of the country’s overall crime rate of 4.3%.  Defectors are also five times more likely to fall…