Asia

In 2005, the Korean ambassador to China was excited about the completion within five years of the target trade volume of over $100 billion with China, which was set by…

Economic Interdependence Between Korea and the United States

The Matter of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement Negotiations

The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks shocked the world twice: first, their unimaginable method of attack and, second, the U.S. response in their wake. Doctrines, policies, and actions that emerged…

    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 In what is becoming an annual tradition, North and South Korea agreed to raise the wages of workers in the Kaesong Industrial Complex by the maximum 5 percent allowed to $67.05 a month under the established agreements between the two Koreas. While the increase in wages is clearly good the 51,000 or…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz In a recent column in the New York Times, David Brooks describes the contradictory nature of the Olympic Games to argue that those working in business and politics must be able to embrace and work with opposite impulses in order to be successful. He notes that the world is a contradictory place…

By Nick Miller When examining how China manages its relationship with North Korea one must understand the various factions within the elites and competing interests within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that shape how China responds to North Korea. How Decisions are Made in China Consensus-decision making Chinese leadership employs consensus decision making as no…

By Sarah K. Yun July 27, 2012 marks the 59th anniversary of the armistice agreement that put a pause to the three-year Korean War in 1953. Although the armistice is a significant and still-relevant document in Korean and world history, little attention is paid to the document due to a lack of institutionalization, the challenging…