Knowing North Korea Book Event | Policy

Details: Category: Policy

What is it like to serve as one’s national representative in North Korea? How is one received, from leaders to ordinary North Koreans? How does one deal with the political fallout of a nuclear test soon after one’s arrival? How free is a foreign emissary to travel and see the “real” North Korea and its residents? The Korea Society welcomes as part of its ongoing Knowing North Korea series the Honorable John Everard, who served as Britain’s Ambassador to the DPRK from 2006 to 2008. Though stationed in Pyongyang, Everard used his travels around the DPRK to meet and converse with many different North Koreans. Ambassador Everard’s new book, Only Beautiful, Please, published by Stanford University’s Shorenstein Center for Asia-Pacific Research, goes beyond official North Korea to unveil the human dimension of life in North Korea. Everard recounts his impressions of the country and its people, his interactions with them and his observations on their way of life. He provides a picture as well of the life of foreigners in this closed society, considers how the DPRK evolved to its current state, and discusses the failure of current approaches to tackle the challenges that it throws up. Ambassador Everard shares keen insights and striking, never-before-seen photographs taken during his stay in North Korea.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Knowing North Korea Book Event:
Only Beautiful, Please: A British Diplomat in North Korea

with

Ambassador John Everard
Author and Former UK Ambassador to North Korea

For more information, contact: Nikita Desai or call (212) 759-7525 ext. 355.

		About the Author John Everard, a retired British diplomat, is now a consultant for the UN. He served prior as the UK Ambassador to North Korea. His distinguished career with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office spanned nearly 30 years and four continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America), and included a number of politically sensitive posts. As the youngest-ever British Ambassador when he was appointed to Belarus (1993 to 1995), he built an embassy from the ground up just a few short years after the fall of the Soviet Union. He managed diplomatic relations as the UK Ambassador to Uruguay (2001 to 2005) during a period of economic crisis and the country’s election of its first left-wing government. From 2010 to 2011, Everard spent a year at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. He holds BA and MA degrees in Chinese from Emmanuel College at Cambridge University and a diploma in economics from Beijing University. Everard also earned an MBA from Manchester Business School, and is proficient in Chinese, Spanish, German, Russian, and French.
		About Stanford University’s Shorenstein Center The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) is a unique Stanford University institution focused on the interdisciplinary study of contemporary Asia. Shorenstein APARC's research spans the worlds of scholarship, business, and government, and cuts across traditional academic disciplines to provide broad, deep perspective. The Center supports many ongoing projects, and also launches new studies every year to respond to its primary research goals. All projects are interdisciplinary and collaborative, involving faculty, students, and experts at Stanford, across the United States, and around the globe. Projects currently underway consider topics ranging from historical memory and reconciliation in Northeast Asia to the unprecedented demographic change taking place in Asia today.