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South Korea

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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 […]

Editorial Staff

comfort women, Kaesong Industrial Complex, THAAD
February 22, 2016 Open Forum
Honeymoons Gone Awry: Abe-Putin, Putin-Xi, and Park-Xi

The term “honeymoon” has been used for three bilateral relationships in Northeast Asia, and there remains some uncertainty whether it still applies today. It gained popularity following what […]

Gilbert Rozman

Honeymoon
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 […]

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 […]

Editorial Staff

December "Comfort Women" deal, Five-party cooperation, multilateralism, North Korea nuclear issue, Regionalism
December 7, 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 […]

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 […]

Editorial Staff

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) […]

Gilbert Rozman

ASEAN, Regionalism, Sino-Russian Relations, triangularity
October 7, 2015 Country Reports
Country Report: Japan (October 2015)

The shadow of history hung over Japan in the late summer as Abe’s statement was debated, the seventieth anniversary of the war’s end passed on August 15, and […]

Editorial Staff

Economic Relations, History Wars, National security, North Korea, Post-Cold War, ROK-Sino alliance, Russo-Sino alliance
September 23, 2015 Alternative Scenarios
Positive Scenario II: Optimism amidst Doubts for China and Its International Behavior

On the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII, China’s much expected military parade of September 3 was held in Beijing. After all, China, the […]

Ren Xiao*

China-Japan-South Korea summit, National identity, One Belt One Road, Regionalism
September 17, 2015 Country Reports
Country Report: South Korea (September 2015)

Three themes concerning relations in Northeast Asia preoccupied the South Korean media in the late summer. Before and after the Abe statement, there was considerable interest in dealing […]

Editorial Staff

8.25 Agreement, Abe Statement, National security, Regionalism, Sino-ROK Relations