2004 Posts located
The year 2010, which is when the Korean economy recovered from the 2008 global financial crisis, seems to have been the turning point to rerecognize China’s importance in many respects.…
As the economy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea becomes increasingly isolated, it depends more and more on the People’s Republic of China for survival and development. The PRC…
Fundamental changes to the nature of politics inside China’s Communist Party are occurring at the same time Beijing and Pyongyang work out a new relationship. These developments are already affecting…
Incredible change in the global economy over the past decade has shattered virtually everyone's expectations of what the next fifty years will look like, and Korea is no excpetion. The…
Although it is happening more rapidly in South Korea, an aging society is a common feature in post-industrial societies around the world. With the number of retirees growing and the…
In March, Seoul suffered from the worst air pollution on record. Enough that the South Korean government has officially designated the problem as a "social disaster." But what is causing…
Over the past few years, Korea and Koreans have experienced incredible political, social, and diplomatic shifts. It is hard keeping up with all these new developments as a Korea Watcher,…
Even before the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, foreign policy practitioners and observers were talking about the difficulties of sequencing international sanctions relief for North Korea…
By Chad 0Carroll North Korea continues to ratchet up its belligerent rhetoric against South Korea, this week threatening to destroy a range of South Korean targets including the Blue House and the offices of various (and named) conservative newspapers and television stations. Rather spectacularly, DPRK state media claimed its military would “reduce all the rat-like…
By Troy Stangarone Nutritional aid might not be the only cost of North Korea’s recent failed satellite launch. Only a few months prior to Kim Jong-il’s death there had been significant discussion of building a pipeline to transmit Russian gas through North Korea to the South. North Korea had indicated that it would be willing…
By Nicholas Hamisevicz There was an interesting contrast last week on the Korean peninsula as South Koreans went to the polls to democratically elect members for its National Assembly; conversely, North Korea had two meetings to put into place its new leadership structure. Unlike in South Korea where the results were difficult to predict, in…
By Troy Stangarone When members of the 19th National Assembly take their seats in Seoul a defector from North Korea will join them for the first time. As a candidate on the New Frontier Party’s proportional representation list, Cho Myung-chul became the first defector to win a seat in the National Assembly. Cho defected to…