Asia

This paper provides an analytical assessment of the implications for North and South Korea of recent changes in the Chinese-Russian and U.S.-Japanese security relationships.The evolution of these two security relationships…

During the past few years, the United States has begun three important initiatives that alter its defense commitment to South Korea (Republic of Korea [ROK]). First, Washington started to decrease…

In October 2006, Kim Jong-il’s North Korea again seized international attention. With its claimed underground nuclear test, Pyongyang upped the ante in its confrontation with the United States and the…

June 25, 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. The conflict on the Korean Peninsula has been going on for so long that we sometimes…

2020 is starting off dramatically with the escalation of tensions in the Middle East – The world held its breath while the United States and Iran exchanged both blows and…

While it is frustrating to see North Korean projectiles flying out to sea and Pyongyang’s erratic, unpredictable reactions in negotiations, we cannot forget where things stood in 2017 – the…

30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people’s aspiration to establish a pluralistic liberal democracy appears to be under scrutiny around the world – anti-immigration policies dominate political…

By William Brown Chinese Customs reported yesterday that imports of North Korean anthracite surged in December, despite late November UN Security Council sanctions that are supposed to curtail North Korea’s coal sales, its biggest foreign exchange earner. The new data shows North Korea exported to China 22.5 million tons of anthracite worth $1.2 billion in…

By Junil Kim The official establishment of South Korea’s newest political party, the Bareun (Righteous) Party, brings the number of official negotiation parties in the National Assembly to four. The party, comprised of former Saenuri legislators, broke away from the ruling party in light of the political fallout from President Park Geun-hye’s recent scandal and…

KEI Communications Director Jenna Gibson, host of the KEI podcast Korean Kontext, recently interviewed Major General James Walton, Director for Transformation and Restationing for U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), who is in charge of moving around 30,000 troops, staff and families from Yongsan Garrison in Seoul down to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek. The following is a…

By Juho Choi Since the end of 2016, the Korean government has faced a variety of problems from a major political scandal to a stagnant economy. Among the issues, one of the most urgent is Avian Influenza (AI). According to the WHO, Avian influenza (“bird flu”) is “an infectious disease of birds caused by type…