Researching North Korea in Washington D.C

In his presentation, Yonho Kim will discuss how research on North Korea is conducted in the Washington policy circle. As the US policy towards North Korea has been centered on the nuclear problem since the 1990s, research on North Korea by the Washington experts is heavily focused on military and diplomatic aspects of the US-North Korea relations. This creates both opportunities and challenges. Kim will also share his observation of how the debates on North Korea evolved among the North Korea watchers in the past decades.

Lecturer

Yonho Kim (Associate Research Professor of Practice, Associate Director of George Washington Institute for Korean Studies, Washington D.C.)

Yonho Kim specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim has extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula at Washington think tanks and media outlets in the past 20 years. Prior to joining the Institute for Korean Studies at the George Washington University, he was Senior Researcher and the editor of the USKI Washington Review of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. From 2008 to 2015, he was Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service where he received a “Superior Accomplishment Award,” from the East Asia Pacific Division Director of the VOA. From 2003 to 2008, he was a broadcaster for Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service. From 2001 to 2003, he was the Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition where he conducted in-depth research on South Korean domestic politics and oversaw program outreach to US government and media interested in foreign policy. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.