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242. Famine in North Korea: AsiaSource Interview with Marcus Noland
- Author:
- Nermeen Shaikh
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Asia Society
- Abstract:
- Marcus Noland is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His work encompasses a wide range of topics including the political economy of US trade policy and the Asian financial crisis. Mr Noland is unique among American economists in having devoted serious scholarly effort to the problems of North Korea and the prospects for Korean unification. He won the 2000–01 Ohira Masayoshi Award for his book Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, Asia, North Korea, and Korea
243. Asia: Towards Security Cooperation
- Author:
- Michael Vatikiotis
- Publication Date:
- 02-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Asia has enjoyed a remarkable climate of peace and security in the post-Cold War era. However, there is much that could have gone wrong. Tensions on the Korean peninsula, in the Taiwan Straits, between China and India, India and Pakistan – the hot spots and fault lines of tension are well known and warily watched. Rarely has serious conflict erupted, though. The last major 'conventional' conflict in Asia was the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, though smaller wars have been fought between states in Kashmir and along the Chinese border with Vietnam. The region is also wracked by protracted internal disputes that generate sustained fears for internal security and destabilized inter-state relations. All the same, for a region that lacks the kind of sophisticated collective security arrangements that have kept the northern hemisphere at peace for the past sixty years, Asia's security environment is remarkably benign.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, India, Taiwan, Asia, Soviet Union, Vietnam, Kashmir, Korea, and Korean Peninsula
244. Preview of the 17th Presidential Election in Korea: Candidates, Issues and Cleavages
- Author:
- Kap Yun Lee
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Journal of Korean Studies
- Institution:
- International Council on Korean Studies
- Abstract:
- At present, all signs seem to point in the direction of a conservative victory in the 17th presidential elections that will be held on December 19, 2007.1 President Roh Moo-hyun's job approval rating has been lower than 30%, and often below 20%, for more than two years, and his UP (Uri Party) is supported by barely 10% of the public. The opposition GNP (Grand National Party) has become by far the most popular party, enjoying more than 40% of the popular support. The economy has been in doldrums since 2002, slowing down to an annual growth of 4%, after an average annual growth of 7% in the preceding decade. Business and consumer confidence in the market is declining, gaps between the rich and the poor are ever more increasing, and unemployment among young people is steadily on the rise. North Korea's Kim Jong-il did not help Roh either. Despite the sincere and continuous provision of economic aid to the North by the Roh government, North Korea responded only by demanding more unconditional aid without taking any reciprocal measures to contribute to the peace and prosperity of the peninsula. The nationalistic public mood soured, in particular after a nuclear test by the North in 2006, and the people no longer wholeheartedly support Roh's conciliatory policy.
- Political Geography:
- North Korea and Korea
245. Leadership for Nation Building: the Case of Korean Presidents
- Author:
- Choong Nam Kim
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Journal of Korean Studies
- Institution:
- International Council on Korean Studies
- Abstract:
- South Korea (Korea hereafter) has represented one of the most successful cases in the history of nation building. The country, known as “an East Asian model of economic prosperity and political democracy,” emerged as a modern nation in a single generation and under the most trying circumstances—the legacy of colonial rule, national division, the Korean War and continual confrontation with the Communist North. Its success in nation building is extraordinary, not only in the history of this country, but also in comparison with other third world countries.
- Political Geography:
- East Asia, South Korea, and Korea
246. A Nuclear Armed Korea as a Factor in Sino-American Relations
- Author:
- Elizabeth Van Vie Davis
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Journal of Korean Studies
- Institution:
- International Council on Korean Studies
- Abstract:
- Few things have changed China's foreign policy toward the United States more subtly than the issue of a nuclear Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. The catalysts of these events were, on the one hand, the July 5, 2006, long-range missile test and the October 9, 2006, nuclear weapon test. On the other hand, the Six Party Talks that had been designed perhaps to prevent these very events have also been a catalyst to changes in US-China relations. In part these changes in Chinese foreign policy toward the US are because of changes within China itself. Partly these changes in Chinese foreign policy toward the US reflect China's changing role in the international system. And partly they are in response to US policy toward China. The nexus of these three elements has been a more respectful and open relationship between the two powers, but one still fraught with nuances and complexities.
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, America, and Korea
247. Korea: Progress in Implementing Regulatory Reform
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Abstract:
- Regulatory reform is a priority in the effort to promote sustainable economic growth, complementing sound macroeconomic policies. It can help shift economic activity to higher value-added production and services, encourage the use of appropriate and new technology and make national economies more resilient to economic shocks. Regulatory reform is a very important asset as countries move forward in the process of globalisation.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Globalization, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Korea
248. Regional Monetary Arrangements in ASEAN+3 as Insurance through Reserve Accumulation and Swaps
- Author:
- O.G. Dayaratna-Banda and John Whalley
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- East Asia is witnessing the emergence of an informal monetary system which focuses on self-insurance through own reserve accumulation and co-insurance through swaps. The former is concentrated in a small number of large countries (China, Japan, and Korea), while the latter involves informal monetary cooperation among monetary authorities in a large number of countries. The origins of this system lie in the Asian financial crises, and reflect concerns both to avoid repetition of similar events and any spread of further crises through contagion effects. This paper first characterizes and documents this emerging system describing how it works and what its objectives are, and then discusses its performance, its incompleteness, and assesses the system's ability to move towards deeper integration without adopting a single monetary authority as well as the impediments it faces. What is clear is that this type of system among individual countries is incomplete and falls well short of complete monetary integration, but at present it performs well even if it experiences a number of deficiencies. Most countries seem better off with partial reserve pooling, while incremental gains from higher degrees of pooling in the region tend to be small.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, Asia, and Korea
249. Exit Polls: Refugee Assessments of North Korea's Transition
- Author:
- Stephan Haggard, Marcus Noland, and Yoonok Chang
- Publication Date:
- 12-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- Results from a survey of more than 1,300 North Korean refugees in China provide insight into changing economic conditions in North Korea. There is modest evidence of slightly more positive assessments among those who exited the country following the initiation of reforms in 2002. Education breeds skepticism; higher levels of education were associated with more negative perceptions of economic conditions and reform efforts. Other demographic markers such as gender or provincial origin are not robustly correlated with attitudes. Instead, personal experiences appear to be central: A significant number of the respondents were unaware of the humanitarian aid program and the ones who knew of it almost universally did not believe that they were beneficiaries. This group's evaluation of the regime, its intentions, and accomplishments is overwhelmingly negative—even more so than those of respondents who report having had experienced incarceration in political detention facilities—and attests to the powerful role that the famine experience continues to play in the political economy of the country.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- China, North Korea, and Korea
250. Disabling DPRK Nuclear Facilities
- Author:
- David Albright and Paul Brannan
- Publication Date:
- 10-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- During the February 2007 Six-Party Talks in Beijing, negotiators reached agreement on a series of actions aimed at starting the process of verifiably dismantling the nuclear weapons program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). A key part of this agreement stipulated that after the DPRK shuts down its nuclear facilities, it would “disable” them. The February agreement did not state which facilities would be disabled or how they would be disabled, except to imply that these issues would be subject to further negotiations.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Beijing, North Korea, and Korea