An imminent deadline is putting new pressure on U.S. trade talks. Bipartisan cooperation could help President Bush’s chances of passing deals in South Korea and Latin America.

South Koreans face a generational divide over policy toward North Korea, weighing a soft approach to their neighbor's nuclear moves or an alignment with the more hard-line U.S. stance.

The prickly relationship between Seoul and Washington gets tested this week as President Roh Moo-Hyun heads to the White House. Divisive issues include North Korea, trade, and control over joint military forces on the peninsula.

This report from Amnesty International argues that migrant workers inSouth Korea are at risk of a range of human rights violations. In August 2003 the Korean National Assembly passed the Act Concerning the Employment Permit for Migrant Workers (EPS Act). The Act prohibits discrimination against foreign workers and was intended to give migrant workers legal status and to put an end to human rights violations against them. By passing the Act, South Korea became the first labour importing country in Asia to attempt to protect the rights of migrant workers through legislation. Despite the recognition of their rights contained in the EPS Act, in reality migrants continue to have little protection and very limited possibilities for obtaining redress for abuses, argues Amnesty.

South Korea, which since the Korean War has relied heavily on its security alliance with the United States, is now trying to define a new role for itself in Asia. Seoul's growing economic relationship with China and its decision to engage North Korea are setting it at odds with U.S. policy goals in the region.

South Korea, long a stalwart ally of the United States, is now seeking to define a new role for itself in Asia.

South Korea's surprise admission of its secret nuclear research activities provides important lessons for the future of global nonproliferation.

The Korean peninsula remains one of the most heavily armed and dangerous places in the world. Despite its deteriorating economy, North Korea retains a standing army of over one million men and an enormous arsenal of artillery and missiles, most of them as close to Seoul, the South Korean capital, as Dulles Airport is to downtown Washington, DC. In 1994, the United States and North Korea almost went to war over the North’s nuclear program. Since then, Washington and Seoul have attempted to cap North Korea’s nuclear ambitions through the Agreed Framework, but the threat from the North remains.

The Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) was signed on May 10, 1993 and entered into force on May 20, 1994.