Asia

During the two-year period since the outbreak in August 2007 of the U.S. subprime crisis, Korea has felt its severe effects: Korea’s economy contracted sharply and experienced a liquidity crisis.…

There is certainly a place for regionalism in Northeast Asia.1 It already exists in various amorphous ways, but regional identity is relatively weak in Northeast Asia, and for this and…

The rise of China means that the regional (not global) power structure is shifting from unipolarity to bipolarity. Whether this is a positive or negative development depends on a particular…

The dramatic events of recent months—and, above all, North Korea’s second nuclear test and long-range missile launch—demonstrated once again that the Barack Obama administration and the international community at large…

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…

By Jenna Gibson North Korea may be all but cut off from the international community, but that has not stopped the reclusive regime from entering the public spotlight every two years for the Olympic Games. The DPRK’s first foray into the Olympic field was in the 1964 Winter Games, where they won one medal –…

By Caleb Cho In early June, a North Korean agent was arrested by Chinese authorities in Dandong, China, the largest border city facing North Korea, due to a number of fake 100 U.S. dollar bills exchanged for Chinese currency at two Chinese banks. The total amount of his deposit was reportedly $ 5 million worth,…

By Hojun Song On July 26, 2016, the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army held a send-off ceremony for deployment of the 18th rotation of the Dongmyeong Unit. This contingent will depart for the United Nations peacekeeping operation (PKO) in Lebanon in early August, renewing its record as South Korea’s longest overseas peacekeeping mission. The Dongmyeong…

By Hojun Song On May 27, 2016, during her official state visit to Ethiopia, President Park Geun-hye visited soldiers from the Hanbit unit, which consists of South Korean troops deployed as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. She praised their hard work and encouraged them to keep upmost efforts in assisting…