This report briefly discusses the South Korean government's decision to shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), which is an 11-year-old industrial park located in North Korea just across the demilitarized zone where more than 120 South Korean manufacturers employed over 50,000 North Korean workers.

The United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) currently seek ways to convince the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that it should forego the manufacture of nuclear weapons, initially by allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to conduct full inspections of suspected facilities. North Korea thus far has refused, although it did agree to an incomplete examination of declared sites early in March 1994. This report reviews military options open to each side as the United Nations, United States, and South Korea explore ways to resolve the resultant crisis peacefully despite threats of war from Pyongyang.

This report discusses the free trade agreement between United States and South Korea, and the potential economic implications for both the United States and South Korea. This report assesses the results of a number of models that are being used to generate estimates of the effect of the KORUS FTA on employment. These studies were chosen specifically because they estimate (or can be used to estimate) data on employment effects of the trade agreement.

The proposed U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) follows current U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) practice in containing two types of formal dispute settlement: (1) State- State, applicable to disputes between the KORUS FTA Parties, and (2) investor-State, applicable to claims by an investor of one KORUS FTA Party against the other Party for breach of an agreement investment obligation.

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