Instead of yielding to Trump’s demands for short-term gains and looking at securing an odd deal, South Korea should leverage its position as the leader in critical sectors such as shipbuilding, battery technology, semiconductor, and a reliable defence exporter, offering Trump a deal to build the US’s industrial capacity in these sectors. This w

Another contention many US allies—including South Korea—experience is the replication of the NATO model, a ‘5 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) standard’, in the Indo-Pacific, which implies earmarking 5 percent of the GDP on defence expenditure. The US Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, reiterated the Trump administration’s position a

Unlike the previous progressive Moon Jae-in administration’s negotiation strategy, this administration has opted for a different route. The approach is based on securing a ‘positive-sum’ deal along with a package that seeks to secure South Korea’s security interests. However, considering the Trump administration’s unpredictability and arb

our trading partners impose retaliatory measures designed to inflict as much pain as possible. If Trump responds by jacking up our import taxes even higher, look to still more inflation and disruptions to the US economy. There are some obvious potential downside surprises. The new legislation on copyright is virtually inviting corruption. Regulatio

There is a similar story with the bond market. It would be nice to see a lower interest rate on Treasury bonds than the current 4.43 percent, and the rate would almost certainly be lower if not for Trump’s tariffs and erratic behavior. However, this is not an especially high interest rate. In the late 1990s, when everyone was celebrating Bill Cli