Asia

For Southeast Asia, the COVID-19 pandemic was not only a public health crisis. It also provided an occasion for China to deepen its engagement in the region by dint of…

COVID-19 has not gone away, and observers are now discussing possible long-term effects of the pandemic, including on geopolitics. A report by the European Parliament discussed five COVID-generated factors that…

The coronavirus pandemic that struck in late 2019 has affected the world profoundly, and Japan is no exception. But the direct impact on Japan has been relatively small considering the…

The national identity gap between China and the United States has become increasingly apparent. Under Xi Jinping, China has sought to reclaim its historical greatness and proclaimed itself to be…

    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…

What Happened Following a highly publicized bribery conviction, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was released from prison on parole. This ruling follows the acquittal of two executives at SK Chemical and Aekyung Industrial Co despite the sale of harmful products. In addition to these companies playing an essential role in maintaining a trade surplus, many average Koreans are…

What Happened Late last month, the two Koreas restored communications lines 13 months after Pyongyang cut off all communication lines to Seoul. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-Jong warned that conducting an annual summertime U.S.-ROK joint military exercise would hamper efforts to rebuild trust between the two Koreas. Despite the warning, South Korea decided to continue the military exercise…

With the help of social media and internationally popular Korean shows, global interest in Korean skincare and makeup products (collectively referred to as K-beauty) has increased exponentially in the past decade. Today, K-beauty products are readily available to American customers at chain stores like CVS and Sephora. This market transition was not coincidental: it was strongly supported…

On July 27, the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that “the top leaders of the north and the south agreed to make a big stride in recovering the mutual trust and promoting reconciliation by restoring the cutoff inter-Korean communication liaison lines through the recent several exchanges of personal letters.”  The hotline was restored at…