Chinese Customs reported yesterday that imports of North Korean anthracite surged in December, despite late November UN Security Council sanctions that are supposed to sharply limit North Korea’s coal exports, its biggest foreign exchange earner.
President Donald Trump did not take long in fulfilling his campaign promise to pull out of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Just three days into his presidency, he formally withdrew the United States from the TPP and began to honor his pledge to change the way the United States does trade.
For the last eight years, we’ve seen a relationship that has grown beyond the Cold War confines of the threat from North Korea and that has begun to evolve into more of a partnership that works together both in the region and on the global stage.
In South Korea the more contagious and deadly N5H6 strain of avian influenza was first diagnosed on November 17th.
The issue of trade was raised to a top-tier issue during the election and the hearings will help provide insight into the future direction of policy.
For the purposes of those with a particular interest in Northeast Asia, and Korea in particular, following are questions that we would love to see asked and answered during the upcoming confirmation hearings.
Our annual look at the events that will shape the Korean peninsula in the coming year.
Even Kim Jong-un seemed a little melancholy in his New Year’s speech, reflecting perhaps the sad state of international affairs everywhere this winter.
After the U.S. presidential election, many experts were concerned about the policies of the new U.S. administration and how they might affect East Asia and the Korean economy in particular.
Whether it was the British vote to leave the European Union in June or the impeachment of the South Korean President Park Geun-hye in December, 2016 will be remembered for a series of unexpected events and the questions they have raised about how they may shape the future.