Asia

Despite years of sanctions and isolation, foreign goods and modern consumer technologies continue to flow into North Korea providing elites with luxury goods and fueling the fragile economy. Countries such…

Winston Churchill coined the term “summit” in the early 1950s to define meetings between leaders of great powers in the Cold War. While summits have allowed needed personal contacts for…

While the initial focus may be on the humanitarian and safety needs of Japan after the Fukushima nuclear accident, South Korea has a major stake in the future of nuclear…

For much of the past month, the world has sat transfixed as the Arab World has begun to transform before our eyes. Having started in Tunisia, the call for political…

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 Troy Stangarone North Korea’s cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment and the subsequent threats to target theaters that screened “The Interview” have had a chilling effect beyond Sony’s decision not to release it on Christmas day. The decision to withdraw “The Interview” from release has raised important questions regarding freedom of speech and how…

By Nicholas Hamisevicz As October faded away, the hopes for an early November high-level meeting as promised after an inter-Korean meeting during the closing of the Asian Games faded as well when North Korea informed South Korea via fax that it would not meet due to the balloons being sent by South Korean activists into…

By Jongsung Kim According to a recent Bank of Korea (BOK) release, Korea’s household debt reached its historically highest level at the end of the third quarter in 2014. The report shows that at the end of September 2014, the household debt registered at 1,060.3 trillion won, a 6.7 percent year-on-year increase (993.6 trillion won)…

By Troy Stangarone One of the keys to attracting international investors to the Kaesong Industrial Complex is reducing the political risk of making an investment in the complex and providing a stable business environment. Since the reopening of Kaesong last year, only the German manufacturer, Groz-Beckert, has decided to take that risk. However, a new…