time zone will be applied.
Report this post?
Please join Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics for a panel discussion involving representatives of the Republic of Korea’s Institute for National Unification (KINU), and leading UK Korea specialists. The discussion will consider the human rights’ situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the wider issue of how international law might be used to address the strategic implications of North Korea’s military cooperation with Russia.
Kim Chun-Sig – President of KINU
Kim Chun-Sig was Emeritus Professor at Sehan University (2022-2023), Visiting Professor at Ewha Womans University (2019-2020), Senior Researcher at The Institute for Peace and Unification Studies of Seoul National University (2013-2016), Vice Minister of Unification (2011-2013), Director General of Policy for Ministry of Unification, Administrative Officer of Presidential Secretariat, Director of Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Bureau, Director of Unification Policy Office, Ministry of Unification (1985-2011), Forum Leader of Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (2016-2018) and Chairman of the Unitiative Inc. Association (2017-2023).
Lee Kyu-Chang – Director of Human Rights Research Division
Kyu-Chang Lee is a Director/ Senior Research Fellow at KINU. His main research areas are the South and North Korean Legal Systems, Unification Law, and North Korean Human Rights. He received a Ph.D. in law from Korea University.
Kim Soo-Am – Emeritus Research Fellow
Soo-Am Kim is an Emeritus Research Fellow at KINU. His main research areas are North Korean human rights, humanitarian assistance toward North Korea, humanitarian issues including separated families, and exchange and cooperation between the two Koreas. He received a Ph.D in political science from Seoul National University and he served as president of the Korean Association of North Korean Studies in 2020.
Lee Keum-Soon – Emeritus Research Fellow
Dr. Lee is an Emeritus research fellow at the Human Rights Research Division, KINU. She has worked on humanitarian assistance to North Korea, human rights in North Korea, and inter-Korean humanitarian affairs. Previously, she served as the chairperson of the National Committee for the Compensation of the Victims of North Korean Abduction (2007-2009), Assistant Minister for Unification Education at the Ministry of Unification (2015-2017), and President of the Centre for North Korean Human Rights Records, MOU (2018-2020), Ministry of Unification.
Choi Gyubin – Research Fellow
Gyubin Choi is a Research Fellow at KINU. His main research areas are Sustainable Development, Development Cooperation for North Korea, and inter-Korean relations. He received a Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds.
Amb. (Ret.) John Everard
John Everard served in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for twenty-seven years, working in Austria, Bosnia, Chile, and China (twice). He served as Ambassador three times, in Belarus, Uruguay and lastly in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from 2006-2008. After his retirement from the diplomatic service in 2008 he was appointed Pantech Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University from 2010-2011. He was then appointed as Coordinator of the United Nations Security Council Panel of Experts established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1874 (dealing with sanctions on the DPRK). He withdrew from that position in November 2012 and has since written extensively for the media, broadcast and lectured, both on Korean issues and on international affairs generally. He published a book “Only Beautiful, Please” in 2012 that described his experiences of living and working in the DPRK and discussed some of the challenges presented by that country.
Professor Ramon Pacheco Pardo (Kings College, London)
Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also King’s Regional Envoy for East and South East Asia, helping to shape and implement the university’s strategy for the region.
Prof Pacheco Pardo is also Adjunct Fellow (Non-Resident) with the Korea Chair at CSIS, Scientific Council Member at Elcano Royal Institute and Committee Member at CSCAP EU. He has held visiting positions at Korea University, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Melbourne University.
His publications include the books Korea: A New History of South & North (Yale University Press, 2023; with Victor Cha), South Korea’s Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny (Columbia University Press, 2023), Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2022) and North Korea-US Relations from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un (Routledge, 2019).
Professor Kevin Gray (University of Sussex)
Professor Kevin Gray is Professor of International Relations at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom. His research interests relate to the political economy of development, with a regional focus on East Asia. He has researched and published widely on the region and, in particular, on the political economy of both North and South Korea. Most recently, he is co-author (with Jong-Woon Lee) of “North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development” (2021). His research has been published in outlets such as the Review of International Political Economy, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Critical Asian Studies, The Pacific Review, North Korean Review, Globalizations, New Political Economy, Third World Quarterly and New Left Review.
John Nilsson-Wright
John Nilsson-Wright (formerly Swenson-Wright) is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES) at the University of Cambridge and an Official Fellow at Darwin College. He is the Programme Head for the Japan and Koreas Programme at the Centre for Geopolitics.
This event is sponsored by the Korea National Institute of Unification (KINU) and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the UK.
