Every morning, in a school located in the heart of Tokyo, high school students change into traditional uniforms, file into their classrooms, and gather under portraits of North Korea’s former leaders Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung. Most have never set foot on the Korean peninsula. This is a school for Koreans in Japan; specifically, those […]
Tag: North Korea
The Koreas: Stars of a Familiar Global Standoff
70 years after South Korea and North Korea called a ceasefire on their ongoing armed conflict, tensions have run high between the two countries, but not culminating in mass violence. Their diplomatic relations continue to remain frosty, and their differences have diverged further through their respective alliances with the United States and Russia. Given the […]
Japan and South Korea Seek Reconciliation Amidst North Korean Missile Threats
Following a North Korean missile launch on the 14th of April, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea have agreed to increase the frequency of missile defense exercises and discussed resuming joint training. While the U.S. has maintained its presence in East Asia as well as its good relationships with both Japan and South Korea, this […]
Why China’s Growing Influence in the Middle East Matters
Trailing behind the exit of the United States, China has taken an interest in the Middle East, brokering diplomatic deals between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This is a surprising role for China to take on, as the country has, in the past, shown relatively little interest in that region of the world. The spike in […]
Who Has Missiles, Who Buys Missiles, Who Decides
Jonah Hill and Miles Teller, according to friends I’ve spoken with, successfully romanticized the arms contracting business in the 2016 movie War Dogs. Guns, girls, excitement and fear all play into the fetishes in a boy’s mind should he be raised amidst American capitalism and the international military industrial complex. The film focuses on those […]
Schooled: Could North Korea Learn from Vietnam’s Higher Education Reforms?
Going to college has never been as popular in Vietnam as it is now. The number of students in higher education has skyrocketed from 133,000 students in 1987 to 2.12 million students in 2015—nearly a sixteen-fold increase over less than thirty years. This increase in education has provided the human capital necessary for Vietnam to […]
Whither Vietnam? A Q&A with Professor T.J. Pempel
In light of Donald Trump’s recent Hanoi summit with Kim Jong Un, Caleb Groen asks Professor T.J. Pempel how the Vietnamese communist party liberalized the economy while retaining its hold on power.
To Engage or Not to Engage: Diplomacy with North Korea?
Editors’ disclaimer: this debate was crafted during early 2018, before the development of new events between North and South Korea’s possible peace treaty that would formally end the Korean War. The contents discussed in the debate below ought to be evaluated as if such a groundbreaking event has yet to occur. RESOLVED: The United States […]
Sanctions: A Foreign Policy Tool, or a Political One?
In September 2017, The United Nations Security Council placed a new round of sanctions on North Korea, which were deemed the harshest yet. In response to North Korea’s ballistic missile test in November 2017, a newer, tougher round of sanctions was passed. At the time, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, claimed, “Today, […]
An Olympic Thaw, or Not
The opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was a symbol of hope. Dressed in all white, athletes from North and South Korea marched together under the same flag. The Olympics have long been a site of international sportsmanship, but the last time the two Koreas marched together was in the Olympics of Winter 2006, under the […]