KEI Live

On Friday, March 13, Commander of United States Forces Korea General Robert Abrams noted that North Korea’s armed forces have been in lockdown for about 30 days and only recently have started routine training again. Citing one example, General Abrams highlighted that the North Korean airforce did not fly an airplane for 24 days. He believes this is a sign that the country is trying to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un was featured in North Korea’s state media supervising live-fire artillery exercise. The country has also launched short-ranged projectiles. 

 

What is going on? Why would North Korea choose to look more aggressive at a time when it could most benefit from international cooperation? KEI Senior Director and Fellow Troy Stangarone joins us to answer this question.

 

You can find a link to Troy’s article for the Diplomat magazine here: https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/coronavirus-the-economic-costs-for-north-korea/ 

 

Please also listen to our previous episodes on how the Korean Peninsula is addressing the coronavirus outbreak.

 

With KEI Fellow Kyle Ferrier on South Korea's response: http://keia.org/podcast/tackling-coronavirus-not-costless-kyle-ferrier

And with Dr. John Grundy on the preparedness of the North Korean healthcare system: http://keia.org/podcast/can-north-korea-take-coronavrius-not-alone-john-grundy

As of March 6, there are over 6,500 reported coronavirus cases in South Korea. 

 

It is currently the country with the second-largest number of coronavirus patients.

 

The large number, however, may be less a reflection of South Korea’s exposure to the disease and more of the country’s proactive effort to screen and test people for the viral infection. The country has tested over 140,000 people - setting up stations throughout the country and employing all public resources, including its universal health care system and the military, to establish the infrastructure needed to treat patients. 

 

The thoroughness of the country’s approach to the coronavirus is evident in its fatality rate standing at 0.57% - this is far lower than the 3.4% figure cited by the World Health Organization and it reflects either South Korea’s ability to detect patients more quickly and more thoroughly or its ability to treat patients more effectively.  

 

Nonetheless, the disease has been a major strain on South Korea socially, economically, and politically. KEI Fellow and Director of Academic Affairs Kyle Ferrier walks us through how the coronavrius is affecting the country.

 

You can find Kyle Ferrier’s recent pieces for the Diplomat Magazine in the following links: 

https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/coronavirus-concerns-intensify-in-south-korea/

https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/coronavirus-now-poised-for-outsized-impact-in-south-korea/

 

If you have not checked out our interview from last week with Dr. John Grundy on how North Korea might be addressing the coronavirus outbreak, we highly recommend you take a listen: http://keia.org/podcast/can-north-korea-take-coronavrius-not-alone-john-grundy

The U.S. Center for Disease Control announced this week that Americans should prepare for the coronavirus spreading in the United States. And in other parts of the world, the disease is already spreading quite rapidly.  

 

At this time, many security analysts are waking up to the reality that there are countries less prepared to contain and treat this new infectious disease - these countries may become a weak link in the global chain to stem the spread of the disease and intensify the consequences of a pandemic.  

 

In Northeast Asia, that country is North Korea - for its part Pyongyang is taking this disease seriously. Its response has been stronger than it had been against the 2014 ebola outbreak, the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, and the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003. It has been described by some analysts as “unusually high-profile." 

 

So what might be aiding or detracting North Korea’s capacity to address this major threat? Our guest today, Dr. John Grundy, is a medical professional who has traveled to North Korea over 8 times and has visited remote locations to examine the country’s health systems. He joins us today to provide his take on North Korea’s public health capacity. 

 

You can find Dr. Grundy’s 2015 paper covering the evolution of North Korea’s public healthcare system from the Cold War era to today, here: 

http://keia.org/sites/default/files/publications/koreaseconomy_ch8_history_international_relations.pdf

 

Please also check out a rebroadcast of KEI's 2017 interview with Dr. Grundy on the history of North Korea's healthcare system:

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-nkxr7-d45dff

Even before the coronavirus became the top headline news in the United States, North Korea responded to the outbreak of the infectious disease in China by sealing its borders. North Korea has not yet reported any cases of the coronavirus - but five North Koreans reportedly died on the Sino-North Korean border from symptoms similar to the coronavirus - there are also reports that a North Korean in Pyongyang may have contracted the virus as well.

 

At this moment, how prepared is North Korea’s healthcare system to combat this new infectious disease? We bring you an episode of the Korean Kontext from 2017 where we sat down with Dr. John Grundy who has field experience examining North Korea’s medical facilities - and had written a paper for KEI on the history of the country’s healthcare system. 

 

You can find Dr. Grundy’s 2017 paper for KEI, "History, International Relations, and Public Health: The Case of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, 1953-2015" here: 

http://keia.org/sites/default/files/publications/koreaseconomy_ch8_history_international_relations.pdf

 

Please also find KEI Senior Director Troy Stangarone’s Peninsula Blog article on why the U.S. government should help North Korea combat the coronavirus here: 

http://blog.keia.org/2020/02/united-states-can-help-north-korea-coronavirus/

2019 was a year of confusion in the United States and the Asia-Pacific.

After the failed Hanoi summit, the world waited for North Korea to come back to the table, which they did not do.

The United States and South Korea agreed to a temporary cost-sharing agreement for U.S. troops stationed in Korea - and Korea watchers waited for a more long-term agreement to be settled before the end of the year. This did not happen.

Meanwhile, people in the United States anxiously waited for Congress to make a decision on whether they would impeach the president or not. 

Then 2020 started with a bang - the United States nearly went to war with Iran; the impeachment trial of President Trump wrapped up rapidly; the Wuhan coronavirus became the top global threat. Amidst all these rapidly-changing developments, what is KEI keeping its eyes on? 

KEI Senior Director Troy Stangarone, Director Kyle Ferrier, and Director Sang Kim are here to tell us about the top issues they are watching in 2020.

Please also find their joint blog piece here: http://blog.keia.org/2020/01/10-issues-watch-korean-peninsula-2020/

Do countries need allies? Do alliances necessarily require the member countries to set aside their national interests? These are the questions that the Trump administration has posed with its America-first approach to foreign policy. 

One of the key claims from the president is that countries like South Korea are not paying their fair share of the defense costs in the security alliance. But who has actually done the math on what the South Koreans are contributing to the alliance?

KEI Fellow and Director of Academic Affairs Kyle Ferrier has done the math on the value of the alliance - and he believes that the United States is risking a whole lot more than $5 billion by undermining people’s confidence in the U.S.-ROK security alliance.

You can find his paper "Monetizing the Linchpin" here: 

http://www.keia.org/sites/default/files/publications/kei_monitoring_the_linchpin_191205.pdf

Why is it important to tell true stories about the past?

It is a question that people are grappling with across the world. In the United States, uncomfortable issues like the legacy of slavery have come to the forefront of public debate. Elsewhere, people are examining the accuracy of traditional narratives around colonialism, war, and the origins of the socio-economic order as we know it. 

It is a difficult exercise for a community, one that might first appear to be opening old wounds rather than healing them. This is especially true at a time when political and economic anxieties - alongside unprecedented changes in technology and human migration - appear to be already unspooling the fabric of society. 

But author Min Jin Lee insists that we must persist in telling true stories about the past because they inform us about who we are and our relationship with one another. They are the very foundations of building a more peaceful and tolerant world. 

Korean Kontext caught up with Min Jin Lee at the 2020 Korean American Day celebration in Washington D.C. where she was recognized alongside fellow author Alexander Chee as this year’s honorees for their contributions to American literature and for elevating the voices of Korean Americans in the United States.

If you have not had the chance to check out our interview with Min Jin Lee’s fellow Korean American Day honoree Alexander Chee, you can find that episode here: 

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ipg7r-d0e6d1 

Also please check out Min Jin Lee's short story Stonehenge here: 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/10/stonehenge

What is the value of representation in a society? Why consider a female president? or Asian actors in movies? or spotlight Black community leaders? It’s an important question for the United States, which is contending with structural inequities - racial, sexual, and economic - and for the rest of the world as well. 

Author Alexander Chee has an answer. Diverse voices deserve a place in our society to tell stories only they can tell - and their stories are important to make sense of the world around us that is - not being made more complex - but rather has always been complex. And if you think your local community is simple and homogenous, it is not, it never was. 

This is the first of two podcasts where we catch up with KEI’s Korean American Day honorees. Today, we speak with Alexander Chee. Currently an associate professor in the department of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth University, he is a journalist, essayist - and author of two novels titled Edinburgh and Queen of the Night. His most recent publication is a series of essays called “How to write an autobiography.” He was honored in this year’s Korean American Day for his accomplishments in modern American literature where he placed society’s rules and norms under a literary magnifying glass.

2020 is starting off dramatically with the escalation of tensions in the Middle East - The world held its breath while the United States and Iran exchanged both blows and barbs.

In the weeks that followed, tensions fortunately deescalated. But in the aftermath, the European Union has accused Tehran of reneging elements of the nuclear deal. Although the Trump administration had already abandoned the nuclear deal in May 2018, Tehran’s abrogation could lead to the reimposition of further sanctions. And so, the situation remains deeply volatile. 

So it’s a good time to review what risks South Korea faces if a conflict flairs up in the Middle East. Would Korean troops be deployed to the region? How long could the South Korean economy last without its vital oil supplies? Are there alternative suppliers? And what would this mean for negotiations with North Korea?

KEI Senior Director Troy Stangarone will answer all these questions in this episode.

This week, the United States and South Korea failed to reach an agreement on how to share the cost for U.S. troops deployed on the Korean Peninsula. 

The two countries had failed to come to an agreement last December as well - ultimately settling on a one-year deal in February of this year where South Korea increased its contribution from around $800 million to nearly $1 billion.

In the current round of negotiations, the Trump administration has sought a 400% increase. A payment of $4.7 billion that would cover the entire cost of U.S. troop deployment and more. 

The position of the U.S. government has elicited concerns both in South Korea and the United States. Long-time policy watchers have raised worries that this may weaken the alliance at a vital juncture in U.S. engagements in the region, or push South Korea to take radical steps to better protect itself against the North Korean threat, such as the acquisition of nuclear weapons. 

Our guest today, former ROK Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, is one of the original architects of the burden-sharing agreement between the United States and the Republic of Korea. He is also a long-time policy practitioner who worked on U.S.-Korea relations. He joins us today to provide his view of relations between the two countries.

Here is the link to KEI's event on U.S. approach to defense burden-sharing: https://youtu.be/CH0jHNB5OwQ 

And you can find KEI fellow Kyle Ferrier’s paper on the monetary value of Korea’s contributions to U.S. foreign policy here: http://www.keia.org/sites/default/files/publications/kei_monitoring_the_linchpin_191205.pdf