Asia

The debate on TPP versus RCEP has been widely recognized as a struggle between the United States and China for expanding their influence in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is…

For many years, the major trading countries coexisted comfortably under a multilateral trading system. Major trade liberalizations were agreed upon multilaterally. In most cases, trade disputes were resolved peacefully under…

With the North Korean nuclear threat still lingering, the international community’s decadeslong effort to bring about peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was in vain. Although there were only a…

North Korea is the world’s most troublesome country, brutal at home and a bully abroad. In 2013 it became even more dangerous, both to its neighbors and to its own…

When Kim Jong-il died in 2011, the world held its breath as North Korea entered uncharted waters. No other communist dictatorship in the last century – for that matter no…

On June 25, 1950, North Korea launched a surprise invasion of South Korea and started a war that is still technically ongoing. But it was – as North Korea’s Kim…

The North Korean economy is changing – we know this because of widely reported growth of private markets since the famine of 1990s. But black markets and illicit activities are…

In May, The Korean-born Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin was named The National League Pitcher of the Month. When you think of Asians and baseball, you might think first…

Attendees at a reception last week by the South Korean Embassy at Tokyo’s New Otani Hotel, held to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan, were pleasantly surprised when Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba showed up to deliver a warm address. He was followed by former prime…

From June 16 to 17, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung attended the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Kananaskis, Canada. This was Lee’s debut on the global stage just thirteen days after he was elected to office. Despite very little time to prepare for multilateral summit meetings, Lee’s attendance offered a timely opportunity to…

In March 2025, South Korea admitted for the first time that the government doctored paperwork and faked the identities of at least 367 children between 1964 and 1999 in a bid for political and economic gains. South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), an independent body established by the government to investigate historical injustices, described…

On May 28, 2025, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) issued a permanent injunction against wide-sweeping tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which included universal and reciprocal tariffs announced on “Liberation Day” as well as fentanyl-related tariffs. The CIT’s three-judge panel held that the U.S.…