Show Notes
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the China in the World podcast, Carnegie China is launching a series of lookback episodes, using clips from previous interviews to put current international issues in context. For the third episode in this series, the podcast looks back on 10 years of dealing with the North Korea challenge.
Developments on the Korean Peninsula have undergone major changes since the launch of the China in the World podcast. In 2011, Kim Jong-un succeeded his father, Kim Jong-il, as supreme leader of North Korea, beginning his tenure with a series of internal purges and a more assertive military posture. While the Obama administration was able to reach a moratorium agreement with North Korea on nuclear and long-range missile tests in February 2012, the agreement was quickly broken in April 2012 with an attempted space launch of the Unha-3. Between 2013 and 2016, North Korea held three nuclear tests, followed in 2017 by North Korea’s first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States, the Hwasong-15. A subsequent “war of words” between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump resulted in the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader in Singapore in 2018, followed by Kim’s “self-imposed” moratorium on nuclear and long-range tests, which was broken in February 2022. Since the Biden administration entered office, North Korea has conducted over 40 missile tests, including 5 ICBM launches, while spurning unconditional diplomatic overtures from Washington. This episode helps shed light on the evolution of geopolitics on the Korean Peninsula over the past 10 years.
More from China in the World
Indonesia has been trying to find its footing as a major international player over the past decade. These efforts include trying to deepen investment and trade relationships with the People's Republic of China while skirting around differences over territorial claims and addressing Beijing’s rising prominence across Southeast Asia. Of concern as well is the pressure Chinese exports are placing on small and medium-sized enterprises in Indonesia, along with the safety of the hundreds of thousands of Indonesian citizens working in Taiwan should Beijing escalate the use of force across the Taiwan Strait. Host Ian Chong examines these issues with guests Natalie Sambhi and Yohanes Sulaiman. Natalie Sambhi is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, Señor Policy Fellow at the Asia Society Australia, and Non-Resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program. She is also a lecturer with the Australian War College. Yohanes Sulaiman is an associate professor of international relations at Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani in Bandung, Indonesia and a non-resident fellow with the National Bureau of Asian Research.
Caught between economic opportunity and security imperatives, South Korea finds itself navigating one of Asia's most complex relationships with China. Seoul has constantly sought to calibrate the management of economic gains and security concerns, but growing U.S.-China competition complicates its options. South Korea must consider its trade and investment partnership with China, political pressure from Beijing, stability on the Korean Peninsula, regional tensions, alliance commitments with Washington, and the demands of its population. In this episode, host Ian Chong and his guest speakers from Korea explore the intricate dance of diplomacy, economics, politics, and strategy that defines Korea-China relations today. Sung Eun Kim is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Korea University. She is also a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2024-25. Injoo Sohn is Professor from the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Seoul National University (SNU). He is also the Deputy Director of the SNU Institute of Future Strategy and the Chair of the institute’s Global Korea Cluster.
Ian Chong explores how Malaysia adjusts its domestic concerns and external relations in an increasingly contested environment with guests - Khoo Ying Hooi and Shahriman Lockman.
Joining Ian Chong to discuss China's relationship with Vietnam are Huong Le Thu and Nguyễn Khác Giang.
Join Ian Chong as he explores how Japan seeks to evaluate its economic and security ties with the People's Republic of China.