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October 2, 2008 | Crisis in North Korea: Opportunity for Democracy

The possible regime crisis in N. Korea poses a threat of loose nukes, floods of refugees, and long-term economic upheaval, but is also a great chance to reunite the Peninsula under democratic rule. ++ The US-South Korean Forces may need to intervene to keep WMDs out of the wrong hands. ++ S. Korea fears an economic situation like that after the Berlin Wall, but the longer unification is delayed,

August 30, 2007 | Seoul's Mistaken North-South Summit

The prospect of a bilateral summit between North and South Korea is laudable, but Bruce Klinger from the Heritage Foundation is suspicious of the motives and the timing of South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun. With national presidential elections approaching, it is in Roh’s interest to gain public approval for unilateral aid to Pyongyang. Such uncoordinated diplomacy benefits North Korea

April 16, 2007 | Kiroku Hanai on Consolidation of US-Japanese Economic Partnership

If Japan intends to preserve its status in world trade, it must negotiate an economic partnership agreement with its biggest trading partner, the US, warns journalist Kiroku Hanai. Japan already lags behind South Korea and China in completing bilateral trade agreements and has recently shied away from free trade because of its weak agricultural sector, preferring instead multilateral negotiations

April 12, 2007 | Robert D. Kaplan on When North Korea Falls

North Korean nuclear tests are symptoms of an unheralded threat: not the exertion of North Korean strength, but the prospective collapse of Kim Jong Il’s government. Weakness in Pyongyang could result in desperation, a WMD attack on the South, or full-on military engagement with Seoul. Drawing on this possibility of collapse, Robert D. Kaplan discusses opportunities for:

1. Reconstruction and