South Korea
Debating South Korea’s mandatory military service
By now, most people in South Korea know the national team’s victory over Japan in the Asian Games football tournament secured not just the gold medal, but also an exemption from…
South Korea’s demographic deficit
South Korea’s transformation from a war ravaged, poor and undeveloped country to be now ranked by the World Bank as the 12th largest economy globally …
Moon deepens civilian control in South Korea
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has initiated a major overhaul of the Defense Security Command, a military intelligence unit, in the wake of revelations…
The struggle to conclude peace in Korea
The border separating North and South Korea remains one of the most heavily armed in the world. Surrounded by thickets of barbed wire, Korea’s misleadingly named Demilitarised…
The discord in the Korean peace process
Last week, the South Korean Blue House announced preparations for another summit – what will be the third – between President Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s…
The women taking on spycams in South Korea
One recent Saturday in August, in the middle of a heatwave with the temperature hitting 35 degrees, 70,000 women gathered in the streets of Seoul. The numbers were unprecedented,…
Idols in South Korea and Japan
The music industries in Japan and South Korea are entwining. K-pop idols can successfully sell albums in Japan, and Japanese singers can join K-pop groups. However, in a…
South Korea’s first “human rights president”
Moon Jae-In has been president of South Korea for fifteen months so far. On the whole, he is a marked improvement on his predecessor, Park Geun-Hye.
President Park was, of course…
Koreas, gas pipelines, and Russia’s ties that bind
Just as South Korea is an ally of the US yet doesn’t fully trust President Donald Trump, North Korea deals with Russia but does not completely trust Moscow. Pyongyang…
Détente divergence: the US-South Korean split
Reactions in the US and South Korea have differed sharply since US President Donald Trump met North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un last month in Singapore. (The president and…