Asia

This paper argues that the impact of Hallyu (the Korean Wave) on the Korean economy has only been effective in boosting related sectors, such as cosmetics, fashion, and tourism. Interestingly,…

This paper proposes a framework for conceptualizing middle powerism in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, using South Korea as an example. The paper argues that the systemic transformation…

In the context of growing US-China tensions, South Korean administrations have opted for degrees of strategic ambiguity, refraining from overt actions that suggest South Korea is taking sides. While strategic…

KEI’s 2021 Report on American Attitudes Toward the Korean Peninsula summarizes results from a survey commissioned by KEI and conducted by YouGov on August 30th to September 7th, 2021. 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…

The summit between President Joe Biden and President Moon Jae-in on May 21 was a resounding success.  Substantively and symbolically they reaffirmed the important strategic and economic relationship between Seoul and Washington.  But at the same time, they carefully avoided the differences between the two on how to proceed in dealing with North Korea, particularly…

Despite the completion of the internal policy review and a successful summit, newly-appointed North Korea envoy Sung Kim faces many of the same constraints that have long plagued U.S. North Korea policy. The Biden administration has rightly acknowledged that any engagement implies “a calibrated, practical approach.” But there are simply not that many policy levers…

What Happened On April 1, Minjok Sarangbang, a small South Korean publishing company, printed copies of Kim Il Sung’s 1992 memoir, With the Century without the required government approval. The Ministry of Unification is investigating the situation, and South Korean retailers pulled the books from their shelves. Multiple conservative civic groups filed an injunction to prevent the sale of Kim’s memoir claiming it could endanger…

What Happened In March, the Biden administration encouraged Seoul to increase trilateral cooperation with the U.S. and Japan. Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with an international leader occurred in April when Japanese Prime Minister Suga arrived in Washington. The U.S. president’s second in-person meeting with a world leader was with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on May 21. Implications: The White House…