A Fractured Trilateral?: ROK-U.S.-Japan Threat Perception and the North Korean Challenge

Jihwan HWANG, Professor at the University of Seoul, points out that the threat perception shared by South Korea, the U.S., and Japan on North Korea isn't actually as symmetrical as their joint statements suggest. The author diagnoses that this asymmetry—with the U.S. treating North Korea as a negotiable variable while Japan viewing it as a secondary threat subordinate to China, and South Korea perceiving it as an existential threat—could become a fault line in trilateral cooperation. Given this uncertainty, Professor Hwang recommends that South Korea keep strengthening the Korea-U.S. deter...

Commentary
  • Jihwan HWANG
  • September 22, 2026
How South Korea’s Sovereign AI Ambitions Could Increase Vulnerability to North Korea’s Cyber Threat

Leif-Eric EASLEY (Professor, Ewha Womans University) and Dabin CHOI (Graduate Student, Ewha Womans University) examine South Korea’s sovereign AI ambitions and assess the accompanying vulnerabilities within its cybersecurity posture. The authors argue that an absolutist push for a wholly indigenous AI stack risks amplifying exposure to sophisticated North Korean cyber threats due to geographic infrastructure concentration and budget-constrained defense asymmetries. Professor Easley emphasizes that Seoul should define AI sovereignty flexibly and bolster national resilience through pragmatic ...

Commentary
  • Leif-Eric EASLEY
  • August 31, 2026
A Critique of the Entrapment–Abandonment Discourse on South Korea in the Era of U.S.–China Competition

Jaewoo JUN, Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), points out that the risks of entrapment and abandonment in South Korea's security discourse during the US-China competition are neither symmetrical nor mechanically balanced. The author critiques the "preemptive contribution" argument, emphasizing that while entrapment is an ongoing geopolitical risk, abandonment is a future risk that only emerges after the US internalizes allied industrial capabilities, meaning premature concessions only undermine South Korea's irreplaceability. Dr. Jun suggests that South Korea m...

Commentary
  • Jaewoo JUN
  • August 19, 2026
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PUBLICATIONS

COMMENTARY
Discussions on Removing the “Deemed North Korean Resident” Provision: What Is Being Overlooked?

Seunghee HA, a research professor at the Institute of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University, points out that the recent debate over deleting the clause in the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act that treats overseas pro-North Korean group members as North Korean residents remains confined...

  • Seunghee HA
  • August 11, 2026
SPECIAL REPORT
[South Korea’s North Korea Policy] ① Toward an Individuation Strategy for the Korean Peninsula: The Abandonment of North Korea's Security-Legitimacy Dilemma and the Long-Term Korean Strategy toward North Korea

Inhwan OH, Senior Research Fellow at EAI (Lecturer at Seoul National University), argues that the logic of the "security–legitimacy dilemma" North Korea once sought to resolve was abandoned after the breakdown of the Hanoi summit, and he recasts the Korean Peninsula as a field of "incomplete sover...

  • Inhwan OH
  • August 10, 2026
SPECIAL REPORT
[South Korea’s North Korea Policy] ② Evidence-Based North Korea Studies: State Strategy Transitions and Elite Dynamics in the Kim Jong Un Era

Professor Taekbin Kim of the Korea National Defense University analyzes that North Korea's major policy shifts are shaped through a power-sharing process with elite groups, moving away from the traditional "Suryong determinism" that views them as unilateral decisions by the supreme leader. The autho...

  • Taekbin KIM
  • August 10, 2026
VIDEO COMMENTARY
The Deeping of North Korea-China-Russia Triangular Solidarity and Its Implications for Korean Peninsula Security

Won Gon Park, Director of the EAI Center for North Korean Studies (Professor at Ewha Womans University), analyzes the major agreements and strategic implications of the China-Russia summit and the North Korea-China summit held in May-June 2026. Director Park assesses that the two summits formalized ...

  • Won Gon PARK
  • September 02, 2026
INTERVIEW
The Evolution of the North Korean Threat and the Challenges of the ROK-U.S. Alliance

CSIS Korea Chair Victor Cha (Professor, Georgetown University) introduces a new approach to North Korea, diagnosing that the traditional policy focusing solely on denuclearization has reached its limits given the reality of Pyongyang's growing nuclear arsenal. The author emphasizes that while mainta...

  • Victor CHA
  • July 31, 2026

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