2004 Posts located
President Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory in 2007. His popularity before the election was obvious, and it came as a surprise to almost no one that he won by…
Korea and Japan are two key allies of the United States in East Asia. These two countries are “window models” of postwar democratization and economic advancement in a free world.…
On 19 October 1983 in Kim Jong-il’s office at the Central Party Building in Pyongyang, a private conversation took place between Kim and two South Korean filmmakers: director Shin Sang-ok…
The world can only hope the recent U.S.-North Korean bilateral discussions will revive the six-power talks and lead to Pyongyang’s renunciation of its nuclear weapons ambitions. Hope, however, is not…
Hello again after the holiday break! Just before the holidays I spoke with Hawon Lee, who was just wrapping up his nearly four years as Washington D.C. Bureau Chief of…
In this episode we speak with Mr. Ken E. Gause, currently a senior research analyst with the International Affairs Group and Iranian Studies Program at CNA Strategic Studies in Alexandria,…
In this episode, we are joined by Balbina Hwang, currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University and the National Defense University here in D.C. Ms. Hwang is here to speak…
This episode takes us directly into the office of Ambassador Han Duk-Soo, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States, who shares his thoughts on the much-anticipated G-20…
By Luke Herman As the Kim Jong Un regime completes its eighth month in power following Kim Jong Il’s death in December 2011, there seem to be a number of differences between how this succession is being carried out with how it was carried out in 1994. For one thing, it has proceeded at a…
By Clare Hubbard The 2012 Heritage Foundation/ Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom ranks North Korea last, after Cuba and Zimbabwe, with an economic freedom score of 1. However, in the mid-1990s famine when women and men had to focus on securing food by generating income and bartering for staples and foodstuffs, small-scale markets…
In the latest public opinion poll from the Asan Institute for Policy Studies Park Geun-hye and Ahn Cheul-soo remain in a neck and neck race. While in a two way race between Park and Moon Jae-in, Park has opened up a 5 point lead. In the race to determine who will represent the progressive side,…
By Nick Miller Main Actors within North Korea Decision Making North Korea’s political structure is a set of institutions built to sustain the Kim family. The Korean Worker’s Party (WKP) and other state agencies were designed by Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il to be used to play rivals off one another and assist him in…