Human Rights

The Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI), with the generous support of the Korea Foundation, organized six “Vision Group” roundtable conversations with leading American scholars and commentators to discuss the…

KEI’s 2020 Report on American Attitudes Toward the Korean Peninsula focuses on U.S. views on relations with South Korea, U.S. awareness of South Korean brands and cultural products, and views…

The states of Southeast Asia are on the front lines of competition not only in regard to the balance of military and political power, as analyzed in Section I, but…

Although coercion is a key element in the governing strategy of the North Korean party-state, the authorities in Pyongyang do not hold political power at the barrel of a gun…

South Korea’s National Police Agency hosted the second annual Korea-ASEAN International Crime Capacity Building Program between July 4 and 15, 2022. Ongoing efforts to transfer policing know-how to participating Southeast Asian countries supported the previous administration’s initiative to bolster ties with the region. It also represented South Korea’s use of its good governance record to…

A recent hearing by the Congressional Human Rights Commission expressed hopes for a breakthrough in South Korea’s refugee policies under the Yoon administration. Despite its growing international status and economic power, the country retains an extraordinarily low refugee acceptance rate of 1.5%. South Korea’s refugee policies have been so far shaped by political expedience, not…

Seoul has hosted a Queer Festival annually since 2000, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in Korea that faces persistent social reprisals. But this year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government refused to extend a permit for the event, which the organizers see as motivated by discrimination. The most vocal opponents of the festival, and gay rights overall, are…

The landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States, protecting women’s rights to choose without government restriction. Just as reproductive rights are under threat in the United States, they are just beginning to find footing in South Korea. South Korea instated a blanket ban in 1953, with a 1973 revision allowing…