Korea must reassess security policy from scratch

Korea must proactively mitigate and adapt to existential risks

Korea should conduct pragmatic assessment while pursuing visionary solutions

Korea must have clear priorities and resilient responses

Korea must be defender of open and inclusive regional order

Korea must step up to the plate as an aspiring global pivotal state

Korea should play more roles in new global order

Time for Korea to become climate champion

Significant increase in official development assistance should be first step

South Korea elected as a non-permanent member of UNSC

President Yoon Suk Yeol paid a state visit to the United States last week at a doubly symbolic moment. This year South Korea and the United States celebrate 70 years of partnership in arms. But the celebration takes place under cloudy skies fraught with mounting volatility and uncertainty for the global and regional orders.

This week marks a crucial milestone in Korea's years-long quest to host the World Expo 2030. A senior delegation from the World Expo Organization or Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) will visit Korea's candidate city, Busan, for an on-site inspection. The Enquiry Mission's assessment will play an instrumental role as over 170 member states of the BIE prepare to vote this November.

Ahead of its widely expected spring offensive in Ukraine, Russia announced its decision to suspend its participation in New START, a landmark nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, which has recently been extended to Feb. 4, 2026. This decision is the latest in a series of Russian attempts to pressure the West through nuclear blackmail.  

The Japanese government has announced a new security policy aimed at acquiring counter-strike capabilities and doubling its defense expenditure over the next five years. This is a significant departure from Japan's long-held policy of limiting its security posture strictly to self-defense. It is also the second step taken by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-led government to expand the mandate of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). The first attempt came in 2015 in the form of a new security law authorizing the JSDF's overseas deployment for U.N. peacekeeping operations and collective self-defense activities.  

The phrase Indo-Pacific has become quite fashionable in international relations lately. It has replaced Asia-Pacific as the main term describing the evolving geopolitical dynamics across the region, which includes players from North America and Oceania.

North Korea is ramping up pressure through a series of missile tests and harsh verbal attacks against South Korea's top government officials. The intensity of North Korean provocations is well illustrated by a record number of missiles launched on one day ― over twenty ― as well as the unprecedented frequency of missile tests averaging more than once a week for the last three months. Most observers concur that the seventh nuclear test is imminent. It is simply a matter of when, not if.

The relations among nation-states are in flux. Many pundits are raising the alarm about the return of the Cold War. But this time around, the main frontier lies not between the United States and the Soviet Union, but between the United States and China, a fast-rising challenger to the U.S.-led international order.

Multilateral diplomacy has been in full swing for the new government of South Korea since right after the inauguration of President Yoon Suk-yeol four months ago. Most recently it culminated in the United Nations summit in New York, home to the most universally multilateral institution. This fall will see the upcoming G20 summit in Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Thailand held consecutively in mid-November.

The long-standing relationship between the Republic of Korea and China goes back thousands of years. In this light, the last 30 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1992 are merely a blink of an eye. Yet this blink might arguably be the most spectacular and productive period in this bilateral relationship. In commemoration and celebration of the past 30 years of enduring partnership between the ROK and China, it would be meaningful to recognize some important changes that have taken place in three areas.

World politics is going through a great upheaval. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the latest manifestation of the growing malaise in big power relations. At its center lies the rising rivalry between the United States and China, the world's two most powerful states and leaders of their respective blocs.