A University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate going into her second year teaching English in South Korea on a Fulbright Scholarship. Also an aspiring foreign correspondent, closet geek and proud to have a Minnesotan accent.
“The notorious tweet reaffirming a statement that condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims” has been deleted by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, but the incident raises a question that lingers: Is blasting out 140-character messages on Twitter a good way to conduct diplomacy, given the political, and even mortal, risks?”
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak traveled to Myanmar on Monday for a state visit, the Wall Street Journal reports. While Lee is the latest in a string of international leaders to visit the country, his visit stands out for two reasons.
First, it marks the first time that a South Korean…
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak evidently knows how to tailor a message to his audience. Speaking to a group of 550 kids during a Children’s Day event at the Blue House, Lee said Saturday that North Korea is acting like a mishaving child, Yonhap News reports.
Slate military columnist Fred Kaplan suggests that the best way for Washington to deal with Pyongyang is to ignore it: “The North Korean leaders savor our attention. They grow a little in their own delusional stature every time we shudder over the grave danger they allegedly pose. They shine a…
A fascinating angle on a potential motivation for the recently announced deal with North Korea to suspend their nuclear program in exchange for food aid. Could it be a way to weaken South Korea’s ruling conservative party ahead of this year’s presidential elections? The conservative party has taken a hard-line stance against their northern neighbors, where as the opposition is more open to negotiations and warmed relations with the north.
Finally, a breakthrough: The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday morning that North Korea has agreed to suspend its nuclear weapons program in exchange for food aid. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland: The DPRK has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile…
The new American ambassador to South Korea shares how his first 100 days in the position have gone and what to look forward to in US-ROK relations.
Note the shout-out to the Fulbright ETA program (my program!) as an example of people-to-people ties between the two countries.
“In recent years, the narrative surrounding the U.S. and its dealings with this part of the world has been gloomy — Washington is a humbled, distracted power, caught up in quagmires and gradually getting out-thought and out-maneuvered by rising global hegemon, China. That’s starting to change.”
This website is seriously amazing. A fantastic overview of the current political situation on the Korean peninsula with great graphics that keep the history from getting dull.
The Council on Foreign Relations has prepared a useful backgrounder on U.S.-South Korean relations that reviews the two countries’ free trade agreement, recent changes in their military alliance and their respective approaches to North Korea.
Click here (http://www.cfr.org/northeast-asia/crisis-guide-korean-peninsula/p11954) for CFR’s interactive “crisis guide” to the Korean peninsula.
(via koreastandardtime)
To use a Hollywood term, it’s going to come across a bit like a bromance.
