Won Gon Park, the Chair of the EAI North Korea Studies Center, predicts Kim Jong Un's potential invasion strategies for South Korea based on the site visits he made during the ROK-US Ulji Freedom Shield exercises in March. Park explores the likelihood of North Korea launching a nuclear attack, noting the envisioned scenario of an armed conflict sta...

Won Gon Park (Chair of North Korea Studies Center, EAI) analyzes the significance of North Korea's constitutionalization of the nuclear force-building policy in September 2023. Park explains that North Korea's persistent drive to elevate its nuclear status reaffirms that its ultimate goal is to communize the entire Korean Peninsula. At the same tim...

Shin-wha Lee, the Ambassador for International Cooperation on North Korean Human Rights, assesses the Yoon government’s North Korea policy as a valid approach to establish a virtuous cycle and mutual complementarity between “peace” and “freedom,” which are the core tenets of Yoon’s foreign policy. Highlighting that South Korea’s North...

Bo-hyuk Suh, a Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), highlights that despite political controversies, South Korean society largely agrees on the severity of North Korean human rights conditions and the necessity of prioritizing human rights improvement in Seoul’s broader North Korea policy. Due to the limited lik...

Woo Young Lee, a Professor at the University of North Korean Studies, points out that South Korea's efforts to improve North Korean human rights have been impeded by extreme polarization between the progressive and conservative camps. In this context, Lee argues that South Korea's official North Korean human rights reports must focus on impartial a...

Matthew Bunn, a Professor at Harvard Kennedy School, analyzes how the U.S. and South Korea can effectively manage military escalation on the Korean Peninsula. Emphasizing the risk of escalation due to the lack of confidence in adversary’s intentions, Bunn warns that the U.S. and ROK must always consider how the DPRK would respond to their actions...

Ouyang Wei, a Senior Research Fellow at the Grandview Institution, discusses the ways in which ROK, China, and the U.S. can cooperate and overcome security dilemma on the Korean Peninsula based on shared interests. Ouyang assesses that because Northeast Asian countries and the U.S. still collectively support the denuclearization of North Korea, nuc...

William Tobey, Director of the Office of National Security and International Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory, assesses the current state of the global nonproliferation regime and offers an outlook for the regime. While the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has largely been stable thus far, Tobey warns that the recent series of Russia’s “...

Dr. JIA Qingguo, a Professor of the School of International Studies at Peking University, analyzes the Chinese government’s position on the term “strategic competition” and explains why the United States, and not China, is responsible for the deteriorating bilateral relationship. Highlighting the series of recent anti-China measures by the Co...

Dr. Lee Shin-wha, the ROK Ambassador for International Cooperation on North Korean Human Rights, identifies the important stakeholders in the DPRK human rights problem and explains why these human rights issues have not been receiving adequate level of attention. Highlighting that humanitarian aid is essential for the survival of the ordinary North...