Economics

We imagine North Korea as a country that is carrying on not only a conflict left over from the Cold War, but also a decrepit legacy economy from the past.…

When people talk about South Korea’s foreign policy, they are more often than not focused on how Seoul engages with its immediate neighbors on denuclearization. However, as a global trading…

2018 has been an incredibly eventful year for both the Koreas and the U.S.-Korea relationship: from North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympics at the start of the year to…

The Trump Administration is once again considering using Section 232 to impose tariffs on imported goods based on a threat to national security. The President originally used this provision to…

By Troy Stangarone Three months after announcing that they had reached a preliminary agreement, South Korea and China formally announced the conclusion of their free trade agreement (FTA) talks. The additional time allowed the two governments to finalize additional details to strengthen the agreement such as a standstill provision to preclude either country from increasing…

By KEI President & CEO Donald Manzullo Just a few weeks ago, two sub-agencies within the U.S. Department of Commerce released two important statistics that have gone relatively unnoticed even by keen observers of Korea.  First, through the Foreign Trade Division at the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. exports of merchandise goods to South Korea hit…

By Matthew Nitkoski Nearly six years ago, the last attempt at multilateral engagement with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ended with the secretive Kim regime vowing to continue its uranium enrichment program. In the intervening years, neither allies nor enemies have been able to convince Pyongyang to halt its nuclear efforts and the fragile…

By Troy Stangarone When North Korea withdrew its workers from the Kaesong Industrial Complex in 2013, confidence in the inter-Korean venture was severely damaged. Firms in the complex lost not only production and revenue, but contracts as well. Over the last year, South Korea has sought to make the complex more resilient in the face…

As disruptions in supply chains continue, what practical steps can the U.S. and Korea take to strengthen supply chains against future crises?