Jihwan HWANG, Professor at the University of Seoul, points out that the threat perception shared by South Korea, the U.S., and Japan on North Korea isn't actually as symmetrical as their joint statements suggest. The author diagnoses that this asymmetry—with the U.S. treating North Korea as a negotiable variable while Japan viewing it as a second...

Won Gon Park, Director of the EAI Center for North Korean Studies (Professor at Ewha Womans University), analyzes the major agreements and strategic implications of the China-Russia summit and the North Korea-China summit held in May-June 2026. Director Park assesses that the two summits formalized the consolidation of the North Korea-China-Russia ...

Leif-Eric EASLEY (Professor, Ewha Womans University) and Dabin CHOI (Graduate Student, Ewha Womans University) examine South Korea’s sovereign AI ambitions and assess the accompanying vulnerabilities within its cybersecurity posture. The authors argue that an absolutist push for a wholly indigenous AI stack risks amplifying exposure to sophistic...

Jaewoo JUN, Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), points out that the risks of entrapment and abandonment in South Korea's security discourse during the US-China competition are neither symmetrical nor mechanically balanced. The author critiques the "preemptive contribution" argument, emphasizing that while entrapment ...

Seunghee HA, a research professor at the Institute of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University, points out that the recent debate over deleting the clause in the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act that treats overseas pro-North Korean group members as North Korean residents remains confined to the narrow issue of deregulation. The author h...

Inhwan OH, Senior Research Fellow at EAI (Lecturer at Seoul National University), argues that the logic of the "security–legitimacy dilemma" North Korea once sought to resolve was abandoned after the breakdown of the Hanoi summit, and he recasts the Korean Peninsula as a field of "incomplete sovereignty"—or of "pre-individuals"—charged with u...

Professor Taekbin Kim of the Korea National Defense University analyzes that North Korea's major policy shifts are shaped through a power-sharing process with elite groups, moving away from the traditional "Suryong determinism" that views them as unilateral decisions by the supreme leader. The author empirically demonstrates the dynamic correlation...

Professor Jongmin LEE of the National Defense University analyzes the structural vulnerabilities hidden behind the recent quantitative recovery of the North Korean economy, which has been driven by resumed trade with China and military cooperation with Russia. The author utilizes three qualitative export indicators to reveal that North Korea's econ...

Inho Choi, Senior Researcher at Seoul National University, analyzes the contradictions between control and capability within North Korea's artificial intelligence (AI) strategy amidst the current suspension of inter-Korean cooperation. The author forecasts that the accumulating technological gap will generate internal pressures, creating an inflect...

Youngsun JEON, Professor at Konkuk University, analyzes the changes in North Korea's national heritage protection policy and their underlying significance in the wake of the recent inscription of North Korea's Mount Kumgang on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The author explains that under Kim Jong-un, North Korea has broadened the scope of protecti...