KEI Live

Less than a month before a pivotal midterm election day, the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) will release our annual survey of how Americans see the U.S.-South Korea relationship. Conducted with YouGov, this year’s survey measures where Americans stand on the alliance, on foreign trade and investment, and President Donald Trump’s handling of Korea-related issues near the halfway mark of his second term. Join Karl Friedhoff, Dina Smeltz, and Nils Wollesen Osterberg on October 8 to walk through the results. Applying decades of public opinion polling experience, they will cover which views held steady, what is shifting, and where Americans are divided, including along party lines. KEI’s annual survey arrives as geopolitical challenges in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, along with shifting global trade policy, raise the stakes for how Americans weigh the costs and benefits of the alliance. [This material is distributed by KEI on behalf of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.]

The August 2023 Camp David summit produced the first standalone trilateral agenda among the United States, South Korea, and Japan, built on commitments to annual leader-level meetings, trilateral exercises, and coordinated economic security policy. Three years later, all three signatories have left office. Their successors inherited the framework without having negotiated it, and each has faced domestic and regional pressures the summit did not anticipate. Join KEI for a discussion of what the trilateral framework has institutionalized, where cooperation has stalled, and what its next three years require. [This material is distributed by KEI on behalf of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.]

Leading defense and maritime policy analysts will assess what the U.S. shipbuilding and shipping industry needs to rebuild long-term industrial capacity and naval readiness, including in partnership with allies such as South Korea. Panelists will address the workforce, supply chain, regulatory, and strategic dimensions of U.S. shipbuilding revitalization amid intensifying competition with China. Organized in cooperation with the Stimson Center, the Center for Maritime Strategy (CMS), and the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI). [This material is distributed by KEI on behalf of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.]

The past year has introduced both expanded opportunities and unprecedented volatilities to the U.S.-South Korea relationship. From nuclear submarine cooperation and a new investment agreement to tariff-related uncertainties and immigration-related tensions, the state of the partnership between the United States and Korea has important implications for regional and global security, economic, and political dynamics. What has changed, what has held, and what does the next year demand of both governments? Two former U.S. ambassadors to Korea take stock. Ambassadors Philip Goldberg (2022–2025) and Kathleen Stephens (2008–2011) join KEI President and CEO Scott Snyder to assess where the alliance stands as President Donald Trump faces a crucial midterm election and his Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung wraps up his first year in office. [This material is distributed by KEI on behalf of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.]

The multilateral free trade system is weakening, the United States is turning inward through discretionary tariffs and industrial policy, and major economies are racing toward security- and resilience-driven production. For South Korea—a leading global trader with a small domestic market—the old playbook of export expansion alone no longer holds, former Minister for Trade Taeho Bark argues. On May 27, 2026, the Korea Economic Institute of America hosted Bark to discuss these and other topics. He lays out a new external economic development strategy for Korea in which exports and outward foreign direct investment are not substitutes but complements: with intermediate goods now exceeding 70 percent of Korean exports, and overseas investment by Korean firms increasingly pulls demand for the high-value-added materials, components, and equipment that Korea supplies. His prescription positions Korea as a global hub for advanced intermediate goods, a core region for future-oriented research and development, and a stronger competitive base for small and medium-sized enterprises. Joining him is Jeffrey Schott, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, as discussant. Schott specializes in international trade policy and economic sanctions, work informed by his years as a U.S. Treasury official and his service on the U.S. delegation that negotiated the GATT Subsidies Code during the Tokyo Round. He is the author or editor of numerous books on trade. Taeho Bark served as Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea from 2011 to 2013 and was Korea’s candidate for Director-General of the World Trade Organization in 2013. He is President of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University, where he previously served as professor and dean. Bark’s research will be featured in the upcoming edition of Korea Policy, KEI's flagship journal. [This material is distributed by KEI on behalf of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.]