Asia

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…

Recent developments on the Korean peninsula are raising expectations that the DPRK may finally be ready for a new era of political rapprochement and economic opening. This possibility is reflected…

The United States and Korea finished the eighth round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in mid-March 2007, and the agreement is likely to be concluded eventually.1…

The U.S.-ROK bilateral economic relationship entered a new era 1 April 2007 when President George W. Bush notified the U.S. Congress of his intent to enter into a free trade…

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…

North Korea’s real GDP fell by 4.5% in 2020, according to the estimate announced by the Bank of Korea (BoK) at the end of July (Figure 1). It was the steepest decline since 1997 during the “Arduous March,” when North Korea was hit by famine. The downturn last year was caused in part by measures to contain…

What Happened On September 16, the National Police Agency announced that they are planning to release a new public safety strategy by October 2021. This strategy includes launching a task force to study the use of robots for street patrol. The military has also stated that it wants to incorporate “moving robots” and an artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance system…

History, politics, and geopolitics are ever-present in Northeast Asia - and they are increasingly part of the media landscape. The controversy surrounding the Chinese war movie “The Sacrifice” is only the most recent reminder. Produced to commemorate the anniversary of Beijing’s unofficial entry into the Korean War, the film depicts the last large-scale Chinese offensive…

This is the second in a two part series looking at the entry of South and North Korea into the United Nations. The first part can be found here.  Since their admission to the UN, the two Koreas have played quite different roles in the organization.  In the thirty years since it became a UN…