This program featured the screening of a documentary by award-winning producers Dan Gordon and John Battsek, which premiered on the PBS program, Wide Angle, on September 11, 2003. The documentary provides a rare, and surprising, glimpse into the individual and family life underneath the monolithic veneer of North Korean society. A Q&A session with Charles Armstrong, associate professor, Department of History, Columbia University, and Wide Angle Executive Producer Stephen Segaller followed the screening. Ambassador Donald P. Gregg served as the moderator for the program.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005


A State of Mind: Life in North Korea


with

Charles Armstrong
Associate Professor, Department of History, Columbia University,

Stephen Segaller
Executive Producer, Wide Angle

Moderated by

Donald P. Gregg
Ambassador

Charles K. Armstrong is an associate professor of history and chair of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University. He specializes in modern Korean and East Asian history. His published works include The North Korean Revolution, 1945 – 1950 (Cornell, 2002), Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy, and the State (Routledge, 2002), "The Cultural Cold War in Korea," Journal of Asian Studies (forthcoming February 2003), "America's Korea, Korea's Vietnam," Critical Asian Studies (December 2001), "The Origins of North Korean Cinema," Acta Koreana (January 2002) and numerous other articles on modern Korean history, politics, and culture. Armstrong received a B.A. from Yale University in 1984 and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1994.

Stephen Segaller is director of news and public affairs programming at Thirteen/WNET. He is an author and producer specializing in journalism, media and technology. At Thirteen/WNET, the flagship station of the Public Broadcasting Service, he is responsible for overseeing and developing all the news and public affairs output of the station, including weekly newsmagazines such as Religion and Ethics Newsweekly; documentary series such as Local News, Allies at War, Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood; the continuing output of Fred Friendly Seminars; and documentary specials such as multiple award-winning Srebrenica – A Cry From The Grave and Sound and Fury. In July 2002, he launched the primetime international documentary series, Wide Angle. Mr. Segaller has spent over 20 years as a television producer working chiefly in journalism, current affairs and documentaries. His work in England includes current affairs television for London Weekend Television and Granada Television, and numerous documentaries and series for Channel 4. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious William Benton fellowship in Broadcast Journalism, and spent an academic year at the University of Chicago, graduating with a Masters Degree in international relations. He is the author of three books: Invisible Armies: Terrorism into the 1990s (London, 1986) – described by one reviewer as “the most authoritative study of its kind”; Wisdom of the Dream: The World of C.G. Jung (London and Boston, 1989; republished New York, 2000); and Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet (New York, 1998). He is a member of the Radio & Television News Directors’ Association, BAFTA East Coast (board member) the New York and U.S.A. Triathlon Associations and The Groucho Club. 

Donald P. Gregg assumed the position of president and chairman of The Korea Society in 1993, following a 43-year career in the U.S. government that included his service as U.S. Ambassador to Korea from 1989-1993. In 1951, Gregg joined the Central Intelligence Agency, and over the next 25 years was assigned to Japan, Burma, Vietnam and Korea. After being seconded to the staff of the National Security Council in 1979, Gregg was put in charge of intelligence activities and given responsibility for Asian policy affairs. In 1982, he retired from the CIA when then Vice President George H. W. Bush asked him to become his national security advisor. Gregg has received numerous honors and distinctions, including the Distinguished Intelligence Medal (1982), the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service (1993 & 2001), a decoration from the prime minister of Korea (1993) and Williams College’s Kellogg Award for Career Achievement (2001). Gregg earned a B.A. from Williams College in 1951 after completing his service in the U.S. Army from 1945-47. He also holds honorary doctorates from Sogang University in Korea and Green Mountain College in Vermont.