Essays

North Korea’s Nuclear State Status: Seeking Legitimacy in the International Community

By | January 29, 2019

Leeds University PhD student Yujin Lim, previously of the Brussels-based European Institute for Asian Studies, describes some of the deterrence theory and IR apparatus around North Korea’s quest for nuclear legitimacy.

South Korea’s Resettlement of South Vietnamese War Refugees

By | December 20, 2018

Matthew VanVolkenburg explores many angles of an overlooked or forgotten episode in South Korea’s history: the resettlement of South Vietnamese war refugees.

Ending the Korean War: Donald Trump as Ex-President

By | July 31, 2018

Adam Cathcart looks at the end of the Korean War and its resonance today from an American perspective. Cathcart argues that Trump is in many respects in Korea acting more like an ex-President than a conventional, active one.

Moscow’s Korea Policy: Priorities and Trends in the Think Tanks

By | July 16, 2018

What do we know about what the Russian government knows about North Korea, and what policy advice is coming out of Moscow and the Russian Far East? Anthony Rinna pivots back to this question and emerges with some surprising conclusions.

History and Identity: Chosunjok in Yanbian

By and | July 02, 2018

How has the unique history of Yanbian shaped the outlook of ethnic Koreans in China? Based on fieldwork and a new academic study of Korean identity, Steven Denney and Christopher Green investigate.