Asia

This article investigates the progress in corporate governance reform in Korea since 1997 as well as current corporate governance challenges. It focuses on corporate governance issues and, as such, does…

According to a preliminary estimate by the Bank of Korea on 4 January 2008, Korea’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita gross national income (GNI), which adjusts…

The year 2007 displayed remarkable progress in Korea-U.S. economic relations on many different levels. At the global level, our two countries have worked closely together to meet international challenges. For…

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (henceforth North Korea) certainly seems to like being different from other countries. Whereas governments of virtually all the world’s countries regularly publish data on…

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…

A specter is haunting the Korean Peninsula — the specter of nuclear proliferation. On the campaign trail, conservative candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said he would consult with Washington over redeploying tactical nuclear weapons. Although the president-elect has not officially changed Korea's stance on nuclear weapons, his comments are part of a larger trend of Korean leaders…

Given the paucity of data on North Korea, the food prices provided by Rimjingang and DailyNK are often used for a variety of analytic purposes: to monitor seasonal fluctuations that most affect the poor; as a wider proxy for inflation; and as an indicator of larger constraints on the economy, including sanctions and the border…

On February 22, 2022, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) conditionally approved the merger of the two largest air carriers in South Korea—Korean Air and Asiana Airlines. This approval comes nearly a year and a half since Korean Air’s announcement that it would buy a nearly 64% stake in its sole major domestic competitor for…

In December 2021, Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign released a short candidate clip. Looking and sounding just like the candidate, the ‘man’ in the video says, “hello, it’s ‘AI Yoon Suk-yeol,’ are you surprised at how much I look like [him]?”  Since then, the campaign would go on to release short clips of the candidate responding to…