Over the past two years, the Obama administration has focused greater diplomatic attention and military resources on East Asia as part of a policy described as a "pivot" or "rebalancing." While American leaders are loath to admit it publicly, this is a response to China's growing influence, particularly Beijing's territorial claims around its borders.

His Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has indicated there might be a review of the decision in 1993 to apologise for direct Japanese coercion of 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other Asian countries into brothels to serve Japanese soldiers during the Second World War. The so-called "comfort women" issue is not completely settled. In particular, it continues to hang over Japan's relations with South Korea.

A Korean wave is sweeping the world. The secretary-general of the United Nations is Korean, the head of the World Bank is a Korean-American. “Gangnam Style,” a song by the Korean rapper Psy, has become the most watched video on YouTube.

From her statements and pledges during the election, president-elect Park Geun-hye’s plan for North Korea policy appears less antagonistic than the Lee Myung-bak administration’s approach, but not as conciliatory as that of the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

It was reported by South Korean media that Liu Qiang, a Chinese man who threw Molotov cocktails at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in 2011, returned home after the Seoul High Court ruled that Liu's arson attack didn't justify his extradition to Japan. The Chinese side has welcomed the result of the case. Japan has asked for Liu to be extradited several times. The case of Liu involves relations between China, Japan and South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year's broadcast on state media.

John Cha Poong started giving children in Zambia disposable cameras three years ago to record their daily lives. The results they sent back were unexpected: their extreme poverty should have been depressing but the pictures that came back were so happy. The next year, the Korean Catholic priest did the same thing in Mongolia and Burundi. Then it was Laos in 2011 and Sri Lanka this year. It was the same story, the pictures were not the sort charities might use to raise money.

"I will definitely keep my promise to open a new era of the Korean peninsula through strong security and diplomacy on the basis of mutual trust," the 60-year old conservative leader said. During the campaign, both Park and her main challenger Moon Jae-in offered competing commitment to improve ties with Pyongyang and its new leader Kim Jong-un.