World taekwondo athletes are gathering in South Korea this week for the 4th World Taekwondo Culture Expo, which kicks off today and runs through July 7 in Muju, North Jeolla Province. Over 1,200 athletes and officials from 30 countries will take part in the annual event sponsored by the World Taekwondo Federation and the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism.

As a world-renowned thought-leader on value creation through brand equity, [Martin Roll] was one of the earliest supporters of the Branding Korea Initiative and was particularly interested to share his thoughts on the challenges faced by Korea’s global brands...

South Korea has been actively engaged in a serious re-branding effort. The South Korean government has been worried that the country’s brand has been underperforming in years past...One area that the Korean government has chosen to try to conduct public diplomacy outreach is in the realm of gastrodiplomacy.

China has tried hard to play a constructive role in the Korean Peninsula. But it's also true that China has not yet succeeded in overcoming several constraints which prevent the country from playing a bigger role on North Korean issues.

The Obama administration expects China to join in the international criticism of North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship. After U.S.-China discussions this week in Beijing, senior American officials say China will carefully move closer to South Korea's position that the North must be held accountable for the torpedo attack in March.

Yes, the US has condemned North Korea over its alleged sinking of a South Korean warship in which 46 seamen were killed...But in light of what North Korea is accused of – an act of war – the US response is strangely and uncharacteristically subdued.

South Korea President Lee Myung-bak issued a strongly worded declaration Monday of retaliatory measures against North Korea for torpedoing the navy ship Cheonan. The question now: How will North Korea respond?

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that she would be pushing the Chinese for a "more balanced economic relationship" with the U.S. in upcoming economic and strategic talks in Beijing.