I gave a guest lecture today to an East Asian international relations course at Yonsei University in Seoul. As part of the class, the more than 40 students participated in an exercise by answering this question about North Korea: How do we address the North Korea nuclear issue? 1. Accept as n... Read more →

While reporting on South Korea's high suicide mortality rate recently, I discovered an unique data set maintained by the World Health Organization. It contains the probability that residents in each country will die from four noncommunicable diseases between the ages of 30 and 70. These are di... Read more →

My family is vacationing this week in Mosman, Australia, a harbourside Sydney suburb near Balmoral Beach known for its family friendly attractions and boutique shops. This place is a great holiday spot. There's only one problem this year, though: It's been quite hot. Sydney is normally relati... Read more →

Last year, the United States imported more than $460 billion in goods — clothes, toys, gadgets, you name it — from China. Of course, our Christmas decorations were on that list, too. Some $2.2 billion in fake trees, miniature lights and assorted ornaments came from the Middle Kingdom last year,... Read more →

Another North Korean soldier defected at the Demilitarized Zone on Thursday, causing a brief skirmish along the highly fortified border. He was the fourth solder to defect this year, including the one last month who was shot several times by his comrades before he made it to safety in South Kor... Read more →

A few weeks ago I wrote about the daring defection — and eventual rescue — of a North Korean soldier who barreled across the Demilitarized Zone in a truck and then ran as fellow troops fired on him. The story centers on a dramatic video of the ordeal released by United Nations command. The vi... Read more →

Last week I posted a visual timeline highlighting nuclear, missile and other "provocations" by the North Korean regime since 2006. The data show a clear escalation, especially in missile tests, since Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011. It's been more than 70 days, though, since the last provo... Read more →

Until the recent incident involving a defecting soldier, tensions between the United States and North Korea had cool slightly, largely because the communist regime hasn't committed any so-called "provocations" — ballistic missile and nuclear tests — in more than two months. Under the North's yo... Read more →

When President Trump came to South Korea earlier this month, he spoke to troops at the U.S. Army garrison known as Camp Humphreys — 40 miles south of Seoul — rather than at Yongsan, the main military headquarters in the center of the capital city. Humphreys has gradually become the hub for Ame... Read more →

The birth rate in South Korea, where I live and work, hit a record low this year, leading to concern about the impact an aging (and, eventually, shrinking) population might have on the nation's society and economy. These charts show the long-term trends, both in actual population and projected ... Read more →