Politics

The year 2011 closed with several symbolic events in predicting Japan’s relations with the Korean peninsula. When President Lee Myung-bak held summit talks with Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko on December…

It has become conventional wisdom in recent years to characterize the PRC as an “assertive” power. Since 2008, many commentators and analysts insist that China has become forceful and activist…

At a Russo-Korean summit in August 2011 Kim Jong-il announced his willingness to resume the Six-Party Talks without preconditions, i.e. no denuclearization or apologies. He also accepted Moscow’s long-standing idea…

Change over continuity is now the tenor of the times on the Korean peninsula and beyond. For one thing, the year 2012—dubbed “Super Year”—has begun with election-year politics in many…

This post was revised on August 21 , 2023 to reflect additional research by the authors. Additional analysis can be found in authors' article Political Polarization in Korea. Korea’s democracy is clearly a success story. Along with Taiwan, it is one of the few Asian countries that transitioned to democratic rule in the 1980s and…

As 2021 began, the world was still in the depths of the pandemic and vaccines to protect against COVID-19 were only beginning to become available to the public in a small number of countries. As 2022 begins, the pandemic continues to impact lives and economies around the world but there are signs of recovery. Among…

What happened The latest poll from January 27 revealed that 53% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 supported the conservative opposition presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol while only 25% supported the ruling party’s candidate. 62% of voters in this cohort had extended their support to the winning progressive candidate in the 2002 presidential…

What Happened: The ruling party’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung announced his plan to raise income per capita to USD 50,000, elevate the country’s hard power, and reach KOSPI stock index of 5,000. Polling two days after this speech showed that Lee led the race with 36 percent against his main opponent’s 26 percent. According to…