Confirmed Speakers

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  Stephen Biegun

  Former Deputy Secretary of StateUnited States

  Bio

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  Steve Biegun

  Former Deputy Secretary of StateUnited States

  Stephen E. Biegun served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State from 2019 to 2021, the Department’s second-ranking diplomat, after serving as U.S. Special Representative for North Korea from 2018 to 2019. At State he led the Department’s COVID-19 response, including the return of more than 100,000 Americans stranded abroad, and focused on the Korean Peninsula, U.S.-China relations, and the wider Indo-Pacific. He previously served as Executive Secretary of the White House National Security Council, chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and national security advisor to the Senate Majority Leader, and early in his career directed a democracy-assistance program in Moscow. He spent two decades in the private sector as a corporate vice president at Ford Motor Company and The Boeing Company. He is the 2026 Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellow at the Lowy Institute, serves on the boards of the National Endowment for Democracy and the German Marshall Fund, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

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  Dr. Kuyoun Chung

  Associate Professor of Political ScienceKangwon National University

  Bio

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  Dr. Kuyoun Chung

  Associate Professor of Political ScienceKangwon National University

  Dr. Kuyoun Chung is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Kangwon National University in South Korea. She also serves as a non-resident research fellow at both the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the Hwajeong Peace Foundation, and as an executive director of the International Policy Studies Institute. Her research focuses on U.S. foreign policy, Korean Peninsula affairs, alliance politics, regional security architecture, maritime security, and emerging technologies. She earned her B.A. and M.A. from Korea University and her Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She subsequently served as a visiting professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy and as a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. She has served as a policy advisor to the National Security Council under the Office of the President, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Unification. She currently serves on the policy advisory committees of the Ministry of National Defense and the Republic of Korea Navy.

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  Wendy Cutler

  Senior Vice PresidentAsia Society Policy Institute

  Bio

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  Wendy Cutler

  Senior Vice PresidentAsia Society Policy Institute

  Wendy Cutler is Senior Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), where she leads the Institute’s Washington, D.C. office and its work on trade, investment, innovation, and women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI in 2015 after nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, culminating in her service as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, where she was responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, including the bilateral negotiations with Japan. She was the Chief U.S. Negotiator for the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) and also worked on U.S.-China trade relations, APEC, the WTO Financial Services Agreement, and numerous bilateral agreements with Japan. She began her career working on trade issues at the U.S. Department of Commerce. She holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University.

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  Markus Garlauskas

  Director, Indo-Pacific Security InitiativeScowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council

  Bio

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  Markus Garlauskas

  Director, Indo-Pacific Security InitiativeScowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council

  Markus Garlauskas is Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, where he leads work on geopolitical risk, conflict and nuclear deterrence, U.S. strategy, and cooperation with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific. A former U.S. government senior executive, he served from 2014 to 2020 as National Intelligence Officer for North Korea on the National Intelligence Council, leading the intelligence community’s strategic analysis and wargaming on North Korea and supporting policy deliberations including the Singapore and Hanoi summits. He previously spent nearly twelve years in Seoul at the headquarters of United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and U.S. Forces Korea, including as director of the Strategy Division, and received the Joint Civilian Distinguished Service Award. He holds a B.A. in history from Kent State University and a master’s degree from Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, where he is now an adjunct professor.

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  Dr. Syrus Solo Jin

  Elihu Rose Scholar in Modern Military History, Department of HistoryNew York University

  Bio

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  Dr. Syrus Solo Jin

  Elihu Rose Scholar in Modern Military History, Department of HistoryNew York University

  Syrus Solo Jin is the Elihu Rose Scholar in Modern Military History in the Department of History at New York University. A historian of U.S.-East Asian relations, the U.S. military, and the Cold War, he is completing a book on U.S. military-building in early Cold War Asia that traces the origins of America’s global security infrastructure through the experiences of American military advisors and their Asian counterparts. His peer-reviewed research has appeared in Diplomatic History and the Journal of American-East Asian Relations, and he has written on U.S. foreign policy, security, and East Asia for Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, TIME, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago in 2025, where he was a Jefferson Scholars Foundation National Fellow, and his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

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  Dr. Abraham Kim

  President & CEOThe Korea Society

  Bio

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  Dr. Abraham Kim

  PresidentThe Korea Society

  Abraham Kim, Ph.D., is President & CEO of The Korea Society, where he leads the organization’s work to strengthen ties between the United States and Korea through policy dialogue, business engagement, and cultural exchange. He brings more than 25 years of experience in public policy, national security, and nonprofit leadership focused on U.S.-Korea relations and Northeast Asia. He previously served as Executive Director & President of the Council of Korean Americans, Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, and Interim President and Vice President of the Korea Economic Institute of America. Earlier, he worked as a policy and risk analyst at Eurasia Group, CSIS, and SAIC. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in political science from Columbia University, an M.A. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Boston University.

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  Ambassador (ret.) Yunju Ko

  PresidentLG Global Strategy Center

  Bio

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  Ambassador Yunju Ko

  PresidentLG Global Strategy Center

  Ambassador Ko Yunju is President of the LG Global Strategy Center, LG Group’s global policy think tank, which analyzes political and policy shifts in major countries and advises the group on how to respond. He has about 30 years of experience as a diplomat and is known for his expertise in U.S. foreign policy and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. He joined South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1995, where he served as Director of the FTA Goods Division, Director-General of the North American Affairs Bureau, and Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister for Political Affairs at the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C. He also served as Deputy Secretary at the Office of National Security. His overseas postings include Washington, D.C., New York, Baghdad and Xi’an. In 2024, he joined LG Chem as Chief Sustainability Strategy Officer. Ambassador Ko holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Economics from Yonsei University, an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University, and a Master of Laws from George Washington University. He received the Order of Service Merit (Green Stripes) in 2013.

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  Tami Overby

  PartnerDGA Group Government Relations

  Bio

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  Tami Overby

  PartnerDGA Group Government Relations

  Tami Overby is a Partner at DGA Group Government Relations in Washington, D.C., where she draws on more than three decades of experience in Asia to advise clients on investment and trade issues in Korea and across the region. She was previously Senior Director at McLarty Associates and, before that, Senior Vice President for Asia and President of the U.S.-Korea Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where she represented U.S. business during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and led the Chamber’s APEC work. Earlier, she served for 14 years as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, helping expand bilateral trade and supporting the conclusion and ratification of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. She serves on the boards of The Korea Society and the U.S.-Asia Institute and on the Advisory Council of the Korea Economic Institute. She holds a B.S. in business administration and management from the University of Arkansas.

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  The Honorable Jin Park

  Former Foreign MinisterRepublic of Korea

  Bio

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  The Honorable Jin Park

  Former Foreign MinisterRepublic of Korea

  PARK Jin formerly served as Korea’s Foreign Minister and four-term Member of National Assembly. He is currently Distinguished Invited Professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Senior Advisor at the Kim & Chang Law Office as a Member of the New York Bar. Previously, he led the Asia Future Institute (AFI), chaired the Korea-America Association (KAA). Elected to the National Assembly in 2002, he chaired the Foreign Affairs, Trade, and National Unification Committee, passing key laws such as the KORUS FTA and the North Korea Human Rights Act. He also served as Presidential Secretary for Press and Political Affairs under the Kim Young-sam administration. He served as a Navy Lieutenant in Korea.

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  General (ret.) Walter Sharp

  Board Vice Chair & SecretaryThe Korea Society

  Bio

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  General (ret.) Walter Sharp

  Board Vice Chair & SecretaryThe Korea Society

  General (ret) Walter “Skip” Sharp currently serves as the Vice Chair and Secretary of The Korea Society’s Board of Directors. During his military career, Gen. Sharp commanded the United Nations Command, Republic of Korea-United States Combined Forces Command, and United States Forces Korea from 2008 to 2011. He also commanded troops in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti, and the Multinational Division (North) of the NATO-led Stabilization Force in Bosnia. Gen. Sharp had four assignments at the Pentagon on the Joint Staff. He was Director of the Joint Staff; Director for Strategic Plans and Policy, J5; Vice Director, J8 for Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment; and the Deputy Director, J5 for Western Hemisphere/Global Transnational Issues. He earned an M.S. in Operations Research and System Analysis from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a graduate of the Army War College.