Foreign Relations

Despite the clear benefits of KORUS FTA for the United States and Korea, it has been stalled for nearly 18 months due to disputes over U.S. beef and the sale…

There is certainly a place for regionalism in Northeast Asia.1 It already exists in various amorphous ways, but regional identity is relatively weak in Northeast Asia, and for this and…

The rise of China means that the regional (not global) power structure is shifting from unipolarity to bipolarity. Whether this is a positive or negative development depends on a particular…

In the spring of 2009, North Korea’s second nuclear test, its long-range missile tests, and its provocative rhetoric once again threatened stability in Northeast Asia. Once again, North Korea engaged…

At the end of September, the Republic of Korea attended a meeting of the Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP). The initiative, led by the U.S., Australia, Japan, and Britain, aims at working with states in Oceania on advancing regional development. Ahead of the meeting, the Korean government was equivocal to the initiative. "Nothing has…

Recent debates on South Korea securing an independent nuclear weapons capacity have addressed several issues, including strategic relevance and operational utility, its impact on the U.S. alliance, how it will affect the balance of power on the Korean Peninsula, and its contribution to the regional arms competition. Less discussed has been the question of South…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, perhaps emboldened by his embrace of Russia’s war in Ukraine, has unleashed a wave of missile tests, with a possible nuclear test to come. The Pyongyang regime claims to be developing tactical nuclear weapons and to be responding to recent joint military exercises by the U.S., South Korea and…

The meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on September 21 was notable mainly for the fact that it took place. It was a brief exchange – some 30 minutes – taking place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. The two governments…