Reflection on Democratization Since 1987 Twenty-five years have passed since a prodemocracy movement in South Korea pressured military rulers to amend the Constitution and conduct a presidential election by direct popular vote in an epochal reform. The primary task facing Korean society at ...

Matriarchal Politics in Experiment An unprecedented phenomenon is now occurring in the 64-year political history of the Republic of Korea: both the ruling and main opposition parties are led by women. Outstanding women leaders, such as Park Sun-cheon and Kim Ok-seon, once played impor...

Suprapartisan Preparations for Unification I have just returned from Berlin, where I participated in a forum on common Korean-German perspectives on unification. It was jointly organized by Korea’s National Unification Advisory Council, an establishment mandated by the Constitution to advise...

North Korea-U.S. Dialogue Urges South-North Exchanges The agreement between North Korea and the United States announced on February 29 after a third round of bilateral talks is deemed more forward-looking than expected. The North agreed to temporarily suspend its nuclear tests, test launchings of long-r...

U.N. Chief’s Role in Halting Repatriation of North Korean Defectors We take pride in having a Korean serving as a leader of the global community: U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. A career diplomat from a divided nation involved in an ongoing regional conflict, Ban was able to become the world body’s chief adminis...