Oct 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 […]

Editorial Staff

Act East Policy , free and open Indo-Pacific , GSOMIA , New Southern Policy , Trump-Kim summit , US-China trade war , US-ROK alliance

Oct 16,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2019)

Japanese foreign policy drew increased criticism in the summer of 2019. On the left, there were harsh critiques of Abe’s diplomatic failures with Russia and North Korea (both putting Japan at increased risk), the breakdown of relations with South Korea, and the troubled state of the Japan-US relationship (Tokyo Shimbun, August 5). On the right, […]

Editorial Staff

"Belt and Road" Initiative , "Hate Korea” , GSOMIA , INF Treaty , Trump-Kim summit , US-China trade war , US-ROK alliance

Oct 07,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (September 2019)

August saw a series of missile provocations from North Korea in the midst of growing tension between South Korea and Japan; the hostility against one another reached its peak as Seoul eventually announced its decision to end a military intelligence-sharing agreement, the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), with Tokyo and later filed a […]

Kim Kimberly

GSOMIA , John Bolton , peace economy , Trump-Kim summit , UN General Assembly , US-China trade war , US-ROK alliance

Jul 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) […]

Editorial Staff

G20 , GSOMIA , Trump-Kim summit , US-China trade war , US-ROK alliance , Xi-Kim summit

May 15,2019 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 7, No. 2

Exchanges in DC are increasingly torn between a focus on bilateral relations—in particular, US relations with China, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan—or on trilateral relations. If the Sino-US relationship has enough heft to galvanize bilateral attention, the other pairings keep becoming enmeshed in triangular analysis. This report on recent seminars and presentations in DC […]

Editorial Staff

comfort women , Hanoi summit , Singapore Summit , trilateralism , US-Japan alliance , US-ROK alliance

May 10,2019 Special Forum

Korea’s Choice: Synopsis of the Asan Plenum 2019

The theme of this year’s Asan Plenum was Korea’s Choice, and the core question regarded a choice between reaffirmation of the ROK-US alliance and prioritization of reunification with the long-separated northern part of the peninsula. For the first time in seven decades this choice had become a serious factor in Seoul’s diplomatic thinking. In many […]

Editorial Staff

Donald Trump , Global Korea , inter-Korean summit , Kim Jong-un , Moon Jae-in , US-ROK alliance

Mar 01,2019 National Commentaries

A View from South Korea

Trump: Negotiator-in-Chief As US President Donald Trump wraps up his second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with the announcement of a major foreign policy victory, we are reminded of Senator Howard Baker’s famous words in the Watergate hearings: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” When the most powerful […]

Lee Chung Min*

Hanoi summit , King Kojong , Munich Agreement , Singapore Summit , US-ROK alliance

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

Introduction

Relations between Washington and Beijing are said to be worse than at any point since their normalization in 1979, and they are on the verge of plunging further through a “trade war” over the horizon, military tensions over the South China Sea and Taiwan where past management is being challenged, exposure of the illusion of […]

Editorial Staff

South China Sea , trade war , US-ROK alliance

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

US-China Rivalry and the Future of the Korean Peninsula

The ongoing “trade war” between the United States and China is not just a trade dispute in light of the two sides’ intensifying rivalry in the area of strategic technologies. The rivalry has deepened as China has stepped up efforts to overtake western countries in advanced technologies, especially for semiconductors (the silicon brains required to […]

Kim Sung-han*

alliance transition , CVID , Panmunjom Declaration , Quad , THAAD , US-ROK alliance , value alliance

Jun 30,2018 Special Forum

US-ROK Relations

The US relationship with the Korean Peninsula is an interesting variation of a strategic triangle.1 Indeed, the United States’ relationships with North Korea and South Korea are hard to analyze except as part of this triangle. Traditionally, the tight and robust US-ROK alliance, along with North Korea’s isolation from the international system, has limited if […]

Darcie Draudt

inter-Korean summit , Singapore Statement , Trump-Kim summit , US-ROK alliance , US-ROK military exercises