1986 Posts located
This chapter examines the nature and motivations of North Korea’s sharp power toward South Korea. Unlike China or Russia, to secure long-term survival, North Korea ultimately needs cooperation from the…
Trade ties between the United States and many East Asian countries have faced a high degree of uncertainty since Donald Trump took office in early 2017. The world is now…
Since entering office in 2017, President Trump has upended longstanding tenets of U.S. trade policy and launched the most aggressive set of new U.S. tariffs and trade restrictions since at…
The U.S.-South Korea relationship has traditionally been characterized as a security alliance, meeting the interests of both countries for a stable Korean Peninsula. Economically, Korea was a major recipient of…
In this episode of Korean Kontext, I have the opportunity to speak with Richard V. Allen, who, in the weeks preceding his official instatement as National Security Advisor to President-elect…
In this episode we hear from author Mike Kim, who speaks with Korean Kontext about his experiences living and working with North Korean refugees on the China-North Korea border. Mike…
We bring the Korean Kontext studio to the U.S. Department of State to speak with Kathleen Stephens, current U.S. Ambassador to South Korea. Ambassador Stephens shares with us her personal…
In this episode we speak with Ambassador John Everard, who served as Ambassador of Great Britain to North Korea from 2006-2008. Ambassador Everard experienced firsthand life as one of only…
What Happened On May 21, Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden met to discuss the US-ROK alliance, vaccine partnerships, supply chains, and North Korea. Shortly after the summit, Moon announced a joint agreement on removing guidelines that limit the distance South Korean missiles can travel. The move is seen as a path for South Korea to develop greater sovereignty over its domestic…
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…