Foreign Relations

North Korea is a country easy to approach emotionally. For anyone with even a little twinge of conscience toward human rights, it evokes disgust. For many in South Korea, who…

“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies.” The words of the 19thcentury British statesman Lord Palmerstone seem to resonate in 21st-century Asia. For example, China and…

Since Kevin Rudd and the Australian Labor Party ended Prime Minister John Howard’s 11 1/2 years in office in late 2007, each new government in Canberra has faced a very…

China and India together account for one-third of humanity. Both were advanced civilizations when Europe was in the Dark Ages. Until the 19th century, they constituted the world’s largest economies.…

This is the third in a 10 part series looking at how the issues identified in KEI’s annual “10 Issues to Watch for on the Korean Peninsula” series developed in 2021. The original “10 Issues” piece can be found here. As U.S.-China competition remained unabated in 2021, South Korea continued to find itself navigating difficult…

This is the second in a 10 part series looking at how the issues identified in KEI’s annual “10 Issues to Watch for on the Korean Peninsula” series developed in 2021. The original “10 Issues” piece can be found here. Although it is commonly understood that the Biden Administration carried out a policy review regarding…

What Happened Public health mandate requiring vaccine passes to enter restaurants, grocery stores, and cafes incited backlash from foreign nationals whose overseas vaccinations were not recognized. Seoul amended its vaccine pass requirement for foreign nationals after a U.S.-led embassy protest. Prior to the changes, the U.S. military issued its own vaccine documents that were recognized by South Korean…

Koreans head to the polls in March to elect the next president of the Republic of Korea. Current President Moon Jae-in is not permitted to stand again, and the election to choose his successor will be a close one. Polls conducted in recent weeks give Yoon Seok-youl of the conservative People Power Party a lead,…