North Korea has responded to planned U.S.-South Korean military exercises by threatening a “retaliatory sacred war” with a “powerful nuclear deterrence.” Pyongyang’s belligerent propaganda is intended to show that the regime is not intimidated by the large-scale allied naval and air exercises scheduled to take place next week near the …
This week, the U.S. and South Korea have initiated extensive joint military exercises and senior-level security meetings to project an image of strong solidarity, resolve, and deterrence to North Korea. Under normal circumstances, these actions would have accomplished their purpose. Although the robust naval exercises display formidable military capabilities, they …
Responding to North Korea’s torpedoing of a South Korean warship in March, I blogged a series of recommendations – one being that we should ratify the long shelved Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). It has many economic benefits, and would demonstrate “no retreat by the U.S. from Northeast Asia,” I …
A page on the Canadian Government’s G-20 Toronto Summit website promises payments to citizens “to mitigate adverse financial consequences” as a result of the meeting of world leaders June 26-27. Unfortunately, the adverse consequences being referred to are only those incurred as a result of the security precautions that shut …
In his May 24 address to the nation, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak outlined an appropriately firm response to North Korea’s vicious attack on the Cheonan naval ship. President Lee’s policy decisions largely mirrored those recommended earlier by Heritage analyst Bruce Klingner, including a decision that “[t]rade and exchanges between …
Will North Korea’s Kim Jong-il get away with murder? That’s a question Koreans, and many in the region, are asking a month and a half after a South Korean naval vessel was sunk, killing 46. An investigation, assisted by U.S. naval intelligence, and other international partners, is still ongoing. Yet …
An April 12 article in the Washington Post poses a timely question concerning one of our longtime friends: “In a world of dangerously failed states and willful challengers to American leadership, South Korea is an astoundingly successful democracy that wants to be friends. But will America say yes?” At the …
