The Korea Society

February 4, 2016 - Sylvia Kim, a human rights lawyer and policy advisor with the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea, offers an overview of the international legal framework aimed at protecting stateless persons and explains the plight of the stateless children born to North Korean refugees in China.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/invisible_children_the_stateless_children_of_north_korean_refugees.html

January 21, 2016 - Changyong Rhee, Director of the Asia and Pacific at IMF, and Tudor’s Phil Suttle provide the global and regional economic outlook for Korea and its neighbors moderated by Korea Society President Thomas Byrne.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/corporate/economic_forecast_2016_korea_and_its_neighbors.html

January 12, 2016 - Robert Boynton, Director at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, discusses his new book, The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea’s Abduction Project, a thoroughly researched investigative report of the systematic abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents. Invitation-only zones were guarded communities for Japanese abducted by North Korean spies from the late 1970s to early 80s.  Boynton’s book is a balance of the harrowing personal stories of Japanese abductees, with an analysis of contextual history, that offers an insight into the behavior of the DPRK regime. This is a special release-day event, with an author signing to follow.

"Rob Boynton tackles the question of North Korea's abductions of Japanese, too often overlooked in the US press. He also explores the broader identity clash between Japan and Korea, rooted in Meiji ideas on evolution, race and colonialism, and more recent DPRK desires to breed a new generation of spies. North Korea seized international attention with last week's fourth nuclear test, and Boynton reminds us of the longer challenges associated with the North in this riveting new work," says moderator Stephen Noerper.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/the_invitation-only_zone_with_robert_boynton.html

December 16, 2015 - Mr. Kim Hyung-Soo, a biophysicist from an elite cadre in North Korea, defected to South Korea in 2009. Though his wife was able to escape, his mother was arrested and died in a North Korean prison camp. As the United Nations General Assembly gets set to vote on a resolution condemning North Korea for gross human rights violations, join us as David Hawk, senior advisor at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, interviews Mr. Kim about the human rights situation in North Korea and his unique experience as a researcher at the “Long Life Health Institute” (Mansumugang Institute), an organization dedicated to preserving the longevity of the Kim family.  

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/north_korean_human_rights_revisited_perspective_of_a_former_north_korean_elite.html

December 14, 2015 - The Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates mid-December and Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol recently told a gathering of business executives that the rate hikes would add pressure on emerging economies with weak fundamentals and companies with heavy debt burdens. The World Bank Group's Marc Stocker, American Enterprise Institute's Alex Pollock, and the Korea Economic Institute's Don Manzullo discuss the ramifications of a potential hike on Korea in a conversation with Tom Byrne, President of The Korea Society.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/corporate/a_u.s._fed_interest_rate_hike_and_its_impact_on_korea.html

December 1, 2015 - Robert Carlin, author, analyst and scholar at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, addresses how best to read Korean Peninsula developments, with an eye to changes in North Korea. Carlin served with the US State Department, visited the DPRK more than thirty times, and has tracked developments there since 1974. He is the co-author with the late Don Oberdorfer of the revised and expanded The Two Koreas (2013).

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/reading_the_two_koreas_getting_it_right.html

November 17, 2015 - In the 1970s, the Republic of Korea sprang forward in its appeal for investors and financiers, given strong export-led growth, close cooperation with US financial institutions, and bank representatives' pioneering efforts. First Chicago's John Day, Citi's Philip Sherman, and Marine Midland's James Whitely recount their experiences as bankers in a groundbreaking era and explain how Korea found its global financial footing.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/corporate/korea_and_banking_in_the_1970s.html

November 12, 2015 - South Korea signed a free trade agreement with China, its largest trading partner, this summer. The ROK-PRC free trade agreement promises to eliminate tariffs on 90% of traded goods, open China for new Korean business and investment, and boost trade to over $300 billion. Jeff Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC, speaks to the agreement, a qualitative step-up for China, and the positioning of the agreement relative to the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership and other initiatives.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/corporate/examining_the_south_korea-china_trade_pact.html

November 5, 2015 - David Straub of Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center analyzes anti-US sentiments in Korea during his tenure at the US Embassy in Seoul from 1999 to 2002 in his important new publication, Anti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea. Straub looks at the implications of troubles in the relationship then, speaks to the strength of today's ties, and addresses implications for the United States' future role on the Peninsula. A book signing follows the discussion.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/anti-americanism_in_democratizing_south_korea_a_look_back.html

October 29, 2015 - Kang Cheol Hwan, author of Aquariums of Pyongyang and Sejun Park former DPRK refugee working for the North Korea Strategy Center, a Seoul-based NGO, speak to the topic of information access for North Koreans and current efforts to share information with the DPRK citizenry on human rights and democracy.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/north_korea_and_information_access.html