Asia,North America

Sook-yeon Lee argues that Indonesia serves as an ideal partner for the United States and South Korea to advance their objectives in the Indo-Pacific region and that the three countries…

Vu Le Thai Hoang and Thi Bich Ngoc Nguyen argue that the elevation of Vietnam-South Korea and US-Vietnam ties to comprehensive strategic partnerships has created new opportunities for trilateral cooperation.…

KEI’s 2023 Report on American Attitudes Toward the Korean Peninsula summarizes results from a survey commissioned by KEI and conducted by YouGov from August 22nd to August 29th, 2023. The…

This is the first post in a two part series on U.S.-Korea energy cooperation. The second part can be found here. By Kim Heejip The global energy market has been going through dynamic changes recently, unseen for many years.  The recent price drop of oil and gas in the global market has been extremely rapid.  Since…

By Phil Eskeland Just prior to President Obama’s recent trip to Asia, critics of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) blamed the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) for the “exploding” U.S. trade deficit with South Korea.  Thus, opponents of FTAs use this specific bilateral trade statistic to argue against TPP and providing Trade Promotion Authority (TPA)…

By Phil Eskeland As President Barack Obama arrives in Asia, some critics of free trade use out-of-date or incomplete trade statistics on the Korea-U.S. (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to justify opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). First, it is premature to offer a definitive opinion on the success or failure of any trade…

By Phil Eskeland Last November, after many months of consideration, South Korea expressed its interest in joining the 12 other Pacific Rim nations in participating in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.  Almost immediately, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) welcomed Korea’s decision.  The aim of the talks is to conclude “an ambitious, comprehensive, and high-standard…