South Korea
Choosing openness in the international economy
The Covid pandemic was good for isolationists and xenophobes, and bad for globalisers and internationalists. Yet since the agricultural revolution, one of the keys to prosperity…
South Korea can’t afford to be a Wally with water
South Korea, Asia’s extraordinary economic development success story, is facing water shortages. The situation is bad enough that the government recently warned the 1.4 million…
Will US reassurance be enough to halt South Korea’s nuclear ambition?
Years of painstaking diplomacy to ensure less nuclear weapons, less nuclear states, and strong anti-nuclear weapons norms appear to be unravelling. It is not only fringe actors on…
North Korea keeps building more powerful weapons, with no end in sight
North Korean weapons tests are nothing new. Pyongyang has been conducting missile tests for years, even holding large annual parades to show off its arsenal. However, things are…
Japan and South Korea: a logical but uneasy alignment
This month, Japan and South Korea struck a deal on the compensation of Korean labour imposed by the Japanese empire during Tokyo’s 1910–45 rule over the Korean Peninsula. The…
Indonesia’s own subs conundrum
This September will mark 50 years of formal diplomatic ties between Indonesia and South Korea.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already kicked off celebrations,…
Why North Korea is denying its involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine
In a case of history repeating itself, the Korean War is set to be revived. Not on the Korean Peninsula but in Eastern Europe. Both North Korea and South Korea are currently…
“If the problem becomes more serious”: South Korea talks going nuclear
The political and security environment on the Korean Peninsula has changed dramatically over the past year, with tensions reaching new levels because of continuous confrontations…
North Korea: unpredictably predictable
North Korea has been launching missiles again. In the first week of November alone, there were more than 30 dispatches, one day the busiest ever – clocking up 23. A salvo flew…
Solutions to the North Korea issue no longer include denuclearisation
On 25 October, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told the National Assembly that North Korea had completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test. While the exact date of…