December 02,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (November 2019)

China was on Russian minds the most, relegating the Korean Peninsula to second among Asian interests. On the one hand, Putin’s announcement of Russia transferring its missile defense apparatus to China set the tone for optimistic pronouncements of an upgrading of strategic relations, even if the term “alliance” was not in the official lexicon. Some foresaw an alliance, eve..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Eastern Economic Forum , Force of Siberia , free and open Indo-Pacific , INF Treaty , Nuclear non-proliferation , turn to the East
October 31,2019 Open Forum

Asian Missiles on the March

In his Asian tour in August, US defense secretary Mark Esper said that he would like to deploy new ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles in Asia as soon as possible. That same month, the Pentagon conducted its first test of such a missile since the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, banning such weapons, expired in August. Many Asian states have also been enhancing th..

Richard Weitz
anti-access/area denial , GSOMIA , INF Treaty , New START Treaty , No First Use policy , THAAD
October 28,2019 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario I

Recently, North Korea broke off working-level nuclear talks with the United States hours after they began in Stockholm.1 Kim Myong-gil, the chief North Korean negotiator, placed the blame entirely on American officials for coming “empty-handed.”2 Observers may be quick to conclude that this is a diplomatic déjà vu in the making: North Korea manufactures a crisis and pleads for san..

Brian Kim
GSOMIA , Kaesong Industrial Complex , Korean War , Mount Kumkang , Trump-Kim summit , US-ROK alliance
October 28,2019 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario I

The working-level talks between the US and North Korea in Stockholm on October 4 and 5 fell apart after just one day. It was anticipated that the meeting would end without any significant result for two reasons. First, North Korea committed to the meeting only when Chairman Kim, invited to an unscheduled meeting with President Trump at Panmunjom, had agreed to holding working-level talks soon...

Jina Kim
Hanoi summit , Korean War , New Year’s Address , Non-proliferation treaty , US-ROK alliance
October 23,2019 Open Forum

Synopsis: DC Exchanges on US-ROK Relations

The US-ROK relationship is overshadowing other interests in Washington regarding foreign policy in East Asia. The ongoing US-China trade war may appear more urgent, but in the absence of Chinese visitors defending Chinese position or US officials eager to explain the US position when Trump is prone to change it on short notice, exchanges have been rather limited. US-North Korean relations and..

Editorial Staff
“small deal” , free and open Indo-Pacific , GSOMIA , inter-Korean summit , THAAD , Trump-Kim summit , US-China trade war
October 18,2019 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 7, No. 5

No topic stirred as much interest in DC think tanks as the US-Japan-South Korean triangle. In the background loomed North Korea, leading to overlapping interest in the Sino-North Korean-US triangle. The driving force remained Donald Trump, keeping on edge US relations with each of the other three countries. Naturally, the latter triangle was seen also through the prism of Sino-US relations ..

Editorial Staff
Act East Policy , free and open Indo-Pacific , GSOMIA , New Southern Policy , Trump-Kim summit , US-China trade war , US-ROK alliance
August 28,2019 Special Forum

Moon’s Failed Balancing Act

The mood was decidedly upbeat in South Korea around this time last year: following the “historic summit” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore, many praised Moon Jae-in as the “master mediator.”1 When Trump contracted cold feet just two weeks before his meeting with Kim, Moon staged a surprise inter-Korean summit to dispel their growing misgivings; the Si..

Eun A Jo
“No Japan” movement , G20 summit , GSOMIA , Korea Passing , nuclear diplomacy , Panmunjom handshake , THAAD , US-China trade war
July 29,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2019)

In the summer of 2019, South Korean media discussed the country’s relations with China, the United States, North Korea, and Japan. Specifically, they covered: (1) the Xi-Kim summit; (2) the G20 summit in Osaka, with three sub-topics: Seoul’s diplomatic leverage, the US-China trade war, and Abe’s decision to forego a bilateral summit with Moon⁠; (3) the Trump-Kim meeting i..

Editorial Staff
G20 , GSOMIA , Trump-Kim summit , US-China trade war , US-ROK alliance , Xi-Kim summit
July 01,2019 Open Forum

China and the Korean Peninsula after the Hanoi Summit

The Hanoi summit between President Trump and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un had been expected to deliver concrete results on the nuclear negotiations and/or US-North Korea bilateral relations. Widely speculated outcomes had included partial denuclearization by North Korea in exchange for partial easing of US economic sanctions on the country; a declaration of the end of the Korean ..

Yun Sun
byungjin , G20 , Hanoi summit , Osaka Summit , THAAD , trade war , Xi-Kim summit