Won Gon Park, the Chair of EAI North Korea Studies Center, contends that North Korea is using a divide-and-conquer strategy between South Korea and the U.S. by revealing its uranium enrichment facilities, increasing direct threat to South Korea while avoiding test launches of missiles that could strike the U.S. mainland. He suggests that by exposin...

Ihn-hwi Park, a professor at Ewha Womans University, analyzes President Yoon Suk Yeol’s “August 15 Unification Doctrine,” which outlines South Korea’s updated approach to unification. Although not entirely new, the Doctrine reorganizes core principles into three strategies: strengthening South Korea’s values and capacity, fostering a desi...

Professor Leif-Eric Easley and Sunwoo Kim from Ewha Womans University examine how North Korea's norm-violating actions -- including missile tests, cyberattacks, and sanctions evasion -- have catalyzed U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateralism. Trilateral cooperation is expanding on cyber and intelligence, economic security, and human rights. These policies have...

Hae Jung Lee, a research fellow at the Hyundai Research Institute, notes that North Korea's economic development has been lagging throughout the first half of 2024, despite its efforts toward regional and local development. While she does not foresee substantial improvements in the country's economic situation for the remainder of the year, Lee sug...

Yongwoo Na, Director of the North Korea Research Division at KINU, underscores the escalating severity of natural disasters that North Korea experiences annually and notes that Pyongyang’s disaster response capabilities remain critically inadequate. Na highlights that the growing frequency of disasters, driven by the climate crisis, poses a signi...

Jihwan Hwang, a professor at the University of Seoul, highlights the implications of Germany's experience on the Korean Peninsula's unification issue, given North Korea's shift in its unification policy and the worsening public opinion in South Korea regarding the necessity of unification. To garner strong support and desire from both South and Nor...

Dong Ryul Lee, Chair of the EAI China Research Center, asserts that although China generally follows a restrained approach aimed at maintaining regional stability in Northeast Asia, it adopts a more proactive stance when it perceives an imminent crisis in the DPRK regime or a significant decline in its influence on the Korean Peninsula affairs, par...

Seong-ho Sheen, a Professor at Seoul National University, examines the theory of coercive diplomacy and its successful application in persuading Libya’s Gaddafi regime to renounce nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Based on the literature on coercive diplomacy, he lays out the conditions for effective coercion such as proportionality, rec...

Won Gon Park, Chair of the EAI North Korea Studies Center, asserts that while Kim Jong Un has recently showcased North Korea's growing military capabilities by deploying 250 tactical ballistic missile launchers, this move lacks substantial military significance due to the regime's limitations in missile production capacity and nuclear command and c...

Won Gon Park, Chair of the EAI North Korea Studies Center, notes that while there is evidence to suggest an increased likelihood of Kim Ju Ae being a strong candidate for succession, it remains challenging to confirm her as the successor given that North Korea has yet to officially announce her name. Furthermore, Park argues that if the North Korea...