Author: Yurim Oh

Join us for this discussion on prospects for a peace regime and inter-Korean social integration with Frank Aum, United States Institute of Peace, Hannah Song, President & CEO at Liberty in North Korea, Rachel Minyoung Lee, former intelligence analyst for the U.S. government, and Joseph Kim, Human Freedom Initiative, George W. Bush Institute. How might the U.S. and South Korea cooperate with regional partners to pursue a long term peace process? How do generational dynamics and social changes in North and South Korea affect inter-Korean cooperation? 

This program is supported by a grant from the UniKorea Foundation.

New Views on Korean Peace Regime and Unification 
with
Frank Aum, Hannah Song, Joseph Kim and Rachel Minyoung Lee   

Thursday, October 15, 2020 | 11 AM

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Frank Aum is the senior expert on North Korea at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He oversees the Institute’s work on North Korea and focuses on ways to strengthen diplomacy to reduce tensions and enhance peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. From 2010 to 2017, he worked at the Department of Defense, including as special counsel to the Army General Counsel, special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, and senior advisor on North Korea in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During this time, he advised four secretaries of defense on issues related to Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula. Aum also served as head of delegation for working level negotiations with the Republic of Korea on U.S.-ROK Alliance matters, and received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

Hannah Song is President and CEO of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK). She joined in 2006 as Deputy Director, managing day-to-day operations and coordinating overseas programs, including underground shelters and refugee resettlement efforts in the United States and in South Korea. At the end of 2008, she became President/CEO, helping to re-found the organization with a new mission focused on building international support for the North Korean people, providing direct assistance to North Korean refugees, and developing long-term, people-focused strategies to accelerate positive change inside the country. Hannah regularly speaks at international fora and to the media on North Korea-related issues.

Joseph Kim is an assistant and Expert in Residence on the Human Freedom Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. He was born and raised in North Korea. In 2006, Joseph escaped North Korea and went to China. In China, he connected with an international NGO called Liberty in North Korea (LiNK). A year later, he left China for the United States and claimed refugee status under the North Korean Human Rights Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2004. In 2013, Joseph delivered a TED Talk on the importance of hope and published a memoir, “Under the Same Sky”. Joseph interned as a research assistant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Korea Chair.

Rachel Minyoung Lee is a former North Korea analyst and collection specialist at the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise (formerly OSC). For two decades, she collected and analyzed open source information and wrote time-on-target reports on the gamut of North Korean domestic and foreign policy issues for US policymakers. She strategized and led collection and analysis from OSE’s Seoul office in some of the most momentous years in recent North Korean history, including the years leading up to and following Kim Jong Un’s succession, the series of missile and nuclear tests, and the two Kim-Trump summits. She is currently an independent researcher of North Korea.