July 27,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2016)

Three international thunderbolts of late June and early July drew intense responses in the South Korean media. The decision to deploy THAAD in South Korea was recognized as destabilizing relations with China and Russia, affecting the diplomatic balance that Seoul had been striving to cultivate since the end of the Cold War. The international court ruling on the South China Sea was perceived ..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Cold War , Russia-China-North Korea , South China Sea , THAAD , US-Japan-South Korea
April 29,2016 Special Forum

Navigating Historical Tensions: Pragmatic Leadership, Empathy, and the United States Factor in Japan-South Korea Relations

The year 2015 was, arguably, an important turning point for Japan’s relations with South Korea. Since the advent of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administration of Prime Minister Abe in 2012, and the election of Park Geun-hye as South Korea’s president in 2013, political relations between East Asia’s most vibrant democratic polities had been in the doldrums. Despite rep..

John Nilsson-Wright
Abandonment-Entrapment model , Han Miracle , Kono Statement , Yasukuni Shrine
April 15,2016 Open Forum

Can’t Buy Me Soft Power (with Hard Power): China’s Appeal to South Koreans

In January 2016, Twice, a multinational girls pop group of South Korea, was at the center of controversy. Chou Tzu-yu, one of the members from Taiwan appeared on a show holding the Taiwanese official national flag (quite possibly asked to do so by the production team). The clip was uploaded on the Internet and then was bombarded with criticism by Chinese netizens. Some even threatened to boyc..

Kim Jiyoon*
American culture , Confucius Institutes , Global leadership , Liberal democracy , Smart power , Twice
March 25,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (March 2016)

Whereas relations with Japan remained a preoccupation throughout 2015, the December 28 agreement on the “comfort women” issue left more room for attention in 2016 to turn in other directions. In the first months of the new year, after the fourth North Korean nuclear test, the Park administration’s responses grabbed the spotlight, especially the decision to stop the operation..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
comfort women , Kaesong Industrial Complex , THAAD
February 12,2016 National Commentaries

A South Korean Perspective

"US-ROK-Japanese Trilateral Security Cooperation"   Despite the practical necessity of trilateral security cooperation among the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Japan, conditioned by changes in the security environment in and around the Korean Peninsula, the Park administration has maintained a kind of lukewarm or cautious attitude toward it. Several factors ha..

Choi Kang*
comfort women , Regional commons , Regionalism , unification
January 25,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (January 2016)

The APEC and EAS Summits in November On November 24, Kyunghyang Shinmun carried an article by Shin Ju-baek, regretting that the successes in multilateral diplomacy were hardly noticed in light of the intense coverage of the terror attack in Paris and the US-China-Japan competition in the South China Sea. The author points out two achievements, to which Korean media had paid the least attention: ..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
December "Comfort Women" deal , Five-party cooperation , multilateralism , North Korea nuclear issue , Regionalism
December 07,2015 Open Forum

South Korea’s Middle Power Multilateral Diplomacy:1 Optimistic and Pessimistic Views

Throughout the second half of 2015, President Park Geun-hye has engaged in active summit diplomacy and tried to play the role of reconciler-in-chief. For instance, she took credit that her attendance at the September 3 military parade in Beijing brought the dividend Tokyo had sought through resumption of the China-Japan-Korea (CJK) summit. She also obtained the approval of Washington following t..

Lee Shin-wha*
MIKTA , NAPCI , National security , Regionalism , Trustpolitik
November 23,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (November 2015)

The first half of the fall was a trying period for South Korean diplomacy, which the conservative and progressive media viewed differently. There was a persistent sense of US pressure on the Park administration: against leaning toward China in support of reunification, for reassuring Washington that she is not leaning toward China, for accepting Japan’s new right of collective self-defense and ..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
National security , Park-Obama Summit , Regionalism , Reunification diplomacy , ROK-Sino Relations , ROK-US relations
October 20,2015 Open Forum

Asia’s Southern Tier and Northern Tier

This article is in three parts: 1) an overview with comparisons; 2) an introduction to analysis of the Southern Tier centered on ASEAN, Australia, and India; and 3) an introduction to analysis directed at the Northern Tier centered on Russia, China, and North Korea. In a rapidly changing Asian landscape, focus on the core of East Asia has the effect of leaving on the margins developments to the so..

Gilbert Rozman
ASEAN , Regionalism , Sino-Russian Relations , triangularity