Asia

What corresponding changes are being made to the Korea-U.S. economic and trade relationship? If, through the changes of the last decade, our trade relationship has evolved from one narrowly focused…

This paper aims to trace the major changes that took place in the Korean housing market and the housing finance system during the past decade, and also to offer an…

Rocky roads conjure images of pitfalls and jarring bumps on a tortuous journey toward some desired destination, without assurance that some calamity will not bar the way to the hoped-for…

Between winning the election in December 2007 and taking office in February 2008, Lee Myungbak and his administration sketched out a massive reform program that would potentially affect every aspect…

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…

In a response to a question from KCNA, the state-run North Korean news agency, the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said “The root cause of the Ukraine crisis totally lies in the hegemonic policy of the U.S. and the West which indulge themselves in high-handedness and arbitrariness towards other countries.” The response of the spokesperson…

Working mothers in South Korea are in a battle to balance family and professional life. One of the largest barriers to achieving this balance is inflexibility in the workplace with newborn infants coupled with inconsistencies in childcare. One mother, National Assemblywoman Yong Hye-in, is challenging these inconsistencies to strike a balance. National Assemblywoman Yong, a…

It will take time for the ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to become apparent, but we can see already that military force has, at least for the moment, swept aside international norms and diplomacy. The implications are not just European but global. Who now is going to convince Kim Jong-un that the world is…

Despite being thousands of miles apart, the Korean Peninsula and Ukraine share a land border with Russia. Given their respective ties to Moscow, both South and North Korean governments have toed around the sidelines of the Ukraine crisis—with Seoul publicly supporting a diplomatic solution while quietly considering additional humanitarian aid to Kyiv, and Pyongyang issuing…