South Korea

Structural challenges in Europe and economic nationalism in Asia rise to the fore as world leaders struggle to contain damages from the unfolding financial crisis. [more]

Coverage of the global financial crisis continues with a look at reactions and strategies in Europe, Asia and Russia, while the Bush administration’s bailout package returns to the House for a fresh vote. [more]

Interested foreign players will seek to play a role in North Korea's leadership transition. [more]

Chinese President Hu Jintao traveled to South Korea Aug. 25, a day after the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, to hold his third meeting with South Korean president Lee Myung Bak. [more]

The pardoning of around 342,000 white-collar criminals and minor offenders in South Korea on Aug. 12 serves multiple government purposes. [more]

South Korea on July 30 launched air and sea exercises around the Dokdo islets, which lie at the center of a territorial dispute with Japan. [more]

Washington has a long-term interest in maintaining a military presence on the Korean Peninsula. [more]

South Korea is avoiding increasing its interest rates in the face of higher prices for commodities. [more]

Political outcries against the fledging government of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak have culminated in the largest street protests seen in Seoul for 20 years. Concerns about U.S. beef imports provide a spark for, but not the substance of, the upset. [more]

In spite of controversy over imports of U.S. beef, South Korea is likely to pass the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement during the new four-year National Assembly session. [more]

A handful of small and medium-sized East Asian states have been moving to prop up their currencies against the dollar. The move signals their worries about untenable inflation rates and could point toward trouble down the line for larger manufacturing economies, such as China. Analyst Donna Kwok discusses. [more]

The central banks of several East Asian countries employed currency manipulation strategies to help offset the economic effects of rising commodity prices. Their move may or may not influence how the region’s most important player, China, will or will not react. [more]

While both Koreas and Russia want a strategic rail project to proceed, they face significant obstacles in the form of the Korean security tensions and aged Russian infrastructure. [more]

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak is due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing on May 27. At the top of the agenda will be economics and talk of a new regional security mechanism as the North Korean nuclear issue starts to fade. [more]

South Korea's upcoming military cooperation deal with Japan and its formal protest to China over the treatment of some South Koreans during the Olympic torch relay both offer insight into South Korea's geopolitical imperatives. [more]

The announcement that Japan discovered spinal column fragments in beef shipped from the United States threatens to derail U.S. beef shipments to Japan and Washington's planned free trade agreement with South Korea. [more]

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak is showing that Seoul remains independent in its foreign policy decisions. [more]

Despite some rumblings about a potential withdrawal of one of three U.S. Air Force tactical squadrons from South Korea, all is well between Washington and Seoul. (With Stratfor map) [more]

North Korea has expelled South Korean government workers from the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong. The move is meant to help shape the tenor of discussions between Pyongyang and Seoul. [more]

The joint U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command will be replaced by two separate national-level commands in 2012. The transition is already under way. [more]