Asia

Despite President Park Geun-hye’s efforts to improve inter-Korean relations, Kim Jongun’s North Korea has never shown any willingness to give up its nuclear ambitions and continuously refuses to become a…

Provocations by North Korea can take various forms: weapons tests, acts of direct violence, cyber attacks, threatening force buildups, etc. Individually and as a group, states are debating how they…

Southeast Asia is the region where Japan has been most deeply engaged in the postwar era. Japan has provided over half of its official development assistance (ODA) to the region,…

Korea’s Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP), launched in 2004, is a policy-oriented development cooperation program in which Korea shares its development experience and knowledge to support the institutional and capacity building…

With worldwide familiarity of Korean pop culture increasing through the viral exposure of Korean musician Psy’s hit record “Gangnam Style”, this episode Korean Kontext speaks to Mark James Russell, author…

In this episode we spoke to B.R. Myers, author of “The Cleanest Race” and regular contributor to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic.  Having been raised…

In this interview Korea Kontext speaks with Dr. Jennifer Lind, assistant professor at the Department of Government, Dartmouth College.  Well known for her work on North Korea and N.E. Asia…

In this episode we spoke to comedian and actor Steven Byrne, of the brand new TBS series “Sullivan and Sons”.  Known as one of the hardest working and energetic comics in…

The Korean Peninsula is currently in a pattern of tit-for-tat provocation: short and long-range missile tests; combined training exercises; artillery live-fire exercises, and border area fighter jet sorties. The pattern in place will reach a new level if and when North Korea undertakes its seventh nuclear test. What will this mean in the context of…

Ahead of the Chuseok holiday last month, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said South Korea was interested in negotiations with North Korea about holding another round of inter-Korean family reunions. The urgency of the issue has only increased since the last time they were held, back in 2018. In his remarks at a government press conference,…

During the second inter-Korean summit in 2007, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il discussed, among other issues, building military trust and establishing special peace and cooperation zones in the West Sea. In the years leading up to the summit, South and North Korean military officials spent considerable time discussing these…

As concern regarding an imminent North Korean nuclear test increases, the debate on South Korea securing its own nuclear weapons is also increasing. There are strong reasons why this debate should be looked at very carefully in Washington. The current debate started with recent discussions in the Yoon Administration regarding the hosting of U.S. tactical…