The Korea Society

November 6, 2023 - Join us and explore with Prof. Mark Peterson the ideas advanced in his most recent book, Views of Korean History by a Frog Outside the Well. Written in a conversational style for the general public, in this book Dr. Peterson offers a unique take on Korean history that differs from the standard history taught in Korea since liberation from Japan. It is a point of view that his Korean audience appreciates for its radical departure from orthodox history and finds “refreshing,” “positive” and “uplifting.” In a recent article for the Korea Times, Dr. Peterson writes that he offers a new approach to facts already well known… but looks at in an entirely new way and a way that many young scholars are starting to look at as well. The discussion will be moderated by Linda Tobash, Senior Advisor for Education at the Society. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/education/item/1743-a-look-at-korea-as-a-frog-outside-the-well-an-outsider-s-perspective-on-korean-history

Recorded October 4, 2023 Signed on Oct. 1, 1953, in the wake of the armistice, the U.S.-South Korea alliance has matured into a dynamic partnership, deterring conflict and fostering cooperation with respect to trade, technology and people-to-people ties. This expert panel reflected on the legacy and future of the alliance. This program was jointly hosted by The Korea Society, the Korea Defense Veterans Association and the Korea-Pacific Program at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. About the Speakers: Thomas J. Byrne joined The Korea Society as its President in August of 2015 following a distinguished career that included Senior Vice President of Moody's Investor Services and Senior Economist of the Asia Department at the Institute of International Finance. Byrne has an M.A. degree in International Relations with an emphasis on economics from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Before doing graduate work at SAIS, he served in South Korea for three years as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. His commentary on Korean affairs has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Financial Times among others. Stephen Haggard is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Distinguished Professor and director of the Korea-Pacific Program at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. He teaches courses on the international relations of the Asia-Pacific at GPS covering political economy as well as security issues. He has done extensive research on North Korea in particular. In addition, he has a long-standing interest in transitions to and from democratic rule and the current phenomenon of democratic backsliding. His recent research on South Korea addresses the issue of political polarization, including with respect to foreign policy. Allison Hooker is a foreign policy and national security specialist with 20 years of experience in the U.S. Government working on Asia. She served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia, where she led the coordination and implementation of U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific region. Prior to that, Hooker served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Korean Peninsula, where she staffed the U.S.-DPRK Summits in Singapore, Hanoi, and the DMZ. Prior to her service at the White House, Hooker was a senior analyst for North Korea in the Department of State and staffed the Six-Party Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program. She received a Masters’ of Arts Degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and has been a research fellow at Osaka University and Keio University, where she focused on Japan-Korea relations, and Japan-China relations, respectively. Youngwan Kim is a career diplomat who joined the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Korea in 1993. He worked at various Ministries of the Korean Government, including Foreign Ministry, Unification Ministry, and Office for Government Policy Coordination, Prime Minister’s Office. Prior to his current post as Consul General in LA, he served as Director-General for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Prime Minister’s office. He also worked as Director-General for Planning and Management of the Foreign Ministry. His most recent foreign post was a Member of the Panel of Experts, UN Security Council Sanctions Committee at the United Nations headquarter. His foreign posts also include Washington D.C., New York, Beijing and Baghdad. Munseob Lee is an economist who concentrates his research efforts on macroeconomics, growth and development, firm dynamics, and Korea. He has investigated the factors that determine the growth of firms, with a particular focus on how government purchases can promote long-term growth of small businesses. Additionally, he examined the disproportionate effect of inflation, revealing that low-income households and black families are the most affected by rising prices in the United States. Lee, who is an Associate Director in GPS's Korea-Pacific Program, teaches courses including Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Macroeconomics of Development and The Korean Economy. In 2019, General Curtis “Mike” Scaparrotti completed a distinguished 41-year career in the U.S. Army as the Commander, U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO. Prior to that he served as the Commander of U.S. Forces Korea / United Nations Command / Combined Forces Command in Seoul from 2013 to 2016. Other prominent postings in his highly-decorated career include Director of the Joint Staff, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force, the Deputy Commander of U.S. Forces – Afghanistan, the Commanding General of I Corps and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and the Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division. Additionally, over the years, General Scaparrotti served in key leadership positions at the tactical, operational, and strategic level. He has commanded forces during Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Support Hope (Zaire/Rwanda), Joint Endeavor (Bosnia-Herzegovina), and Assured Response (Liberia). General Scaparrotti holds a Master’s degree in Administrative Education from the University of South Carolina. In addition to his work with The Cohen Group, General Scaparrotti sits on the boards iof the Atlantic Council and Patriot Foundation, and is a Senior Fellow at the National Defense University. Yoo Myung-hee served at the Ministries of Trade, Industry and Energy and Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea for nearly three decades before becoming Korea’s first female trade minister (2019-2021). In a variety of roles she designed and implemented Korea’s trade policy and negotiation strategies and led numerous bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations as Korea’s chief negotiator, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and Korea’s free trade agreements with the United States and ASEAN. As trade minister, she contributed to international initiatives to ensure supply chain resilience and to address digital trade policy. She received her BA and MPA from Seoul National University and JD from Vanderbilt University Law School and currently teaches at the Graduate School of International Studies of Seoul National University. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1745-the-u-s-republic-of-korea-alliance-at-70-legacy-and-future

October 18, 2023 - Join us for an in-person program with former Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Energy of the Republic of Korea Duck Koo Chung, also the Founder and Chairman of the NEAR Foundation (North-East Asia Research Foundation), as he recounts his time as a Deputy Minister of Finance during the 1997 IMF Crisis. Chung played a crucial part in Korea’s impressively rapid economic recovery as chief negotiator representing the Korean government with the IMF. This program will feature Chung’s reflections on Korea’s development in the 25 years since the crisis, and insights into the trajectory of Korean society and economy as the country navigates trade tensions between the U.S. and China. This conversation will be moderated by Korea Society President and CEO Tom Byrne. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1730-the-korean-economy-beyond-the-crisis-korea-us-china-economic-interdependence-and-competition

October 13, 2023 - Join us for this book talk with Dr. Aram Hur, who discusses Narratives of Civic Duty: How National Stories Shape Democracy in Asia. At a time when nationalism appears to be stoking regional conflicts and democratic backsliding in Asia and beyond, Dr. Hur's book argues for the positive capacity of nationalism. The book received the 2023 Robert A. Dahl Award from the American Political Science Association for "scholarship of the highest quality on the subject of democracy" by an untenured scholar. Dr. Hur is the Kim Koo Chair in Korean Studies and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. She was the recipient of The Korea Society's Sherman Family Emerging Scholar Lecture Award in 2021. This program is a collaboration between The Korea Society's Policy Department and the Education Department, and is moderated by Linda Tobash, Senior Advisor for Education. The discussant is Dr. Darcie Draudt, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1680-how-national-stories-shape-democracy-in-asia

Recorded October 5, 2023 - The Korea Society, Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) and Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in New York are co-hosting the New York Korean Financial Forum. We are pleased to welcome Soonkyu (SK) Shin, who works on Wall Street as a credit analyst, to tell his newest story, an evolution of the theme of life's robustness that he has been writing about for the past few years. As part of an ongoing KIC forum, this program aims to share thoughts on various aspects of life from a finance professional’s perspective with a larger audience, including students, diverging from the usual format of sharing professional investment knowledge. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1733-living-a-balanced-life-in-a-capitalistic-society-a-veteran-wall-street-analyst-s-views

October 6, 2023 - Three poets. Three translators. One conversation. Join us for an evening of bilingual poetry readings. Three poets - Moon Bo Young, Kim Liyoun, Kim Sono - along with three translators - Soje, Eunice Lee, Jenny Jisun Kim - explore the power of language to connect us with one another. Not as well known to many audiences, Korean poetry contains a rich and vibrant tradition that is yet to be understood. It is through the exchanging of dialogue, breath, and verse that the moment of Korean poetry is revealed. This program is a collaboration between The Korea Society’s Arts and Culture Department and Education Department and is moderated by Education Program Officer, Amanda Grant. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1719-korean-and-english-bilingual-poetry-reading

Recorded September 27, 2023 - Join us for the launch of the Korean translation of Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government, a memoir written by the late Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. This program features William R. Rhodes, CEO of William R. Rhodes Global Advisors and author of “Banker to the World,” which includes a foreword written by Volcker, and insights from Christine Harper, a member of Bloomberg’s editorial board, on Volcker’s extraordinary life and legacy. From his early days working in the Treasury Department, to his time in the Federal Reserve navigating the high inflation of the 1970s and 80s, Volcker’s thoughtful reflections on the importance of good government, stable finance, and stable prices continue to resonate in this new translation. This program is produced in partnership with Columbia University’s APEC Study Center. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1716-keeping-at-it-the-quest-for-sound-money-and-good-government

September 21, 2023 - Join us for a program that addresses the new nuclear dynamics of Northeast Asia produced in cooperation with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center. This panel discussion investigates how regional shifts in nuclear weapons capabilities and evolving doctrines affect the Korean Peninsula and beyond, with a focus on North Korea’s quickly developing nuclear and missile deterrent, the maturing nuclear capabilities of the People’s Republic of China, the US-ROK Alliance’s evolving nuclear posture, Russian aggression, and the role of trilateral US-Korea-Japan security cooperation. The panel consists of: Matthew Kroenig, Vice President and Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy, Markus Garlauskas, director of the new Indo-Pacific Security Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Dr. Sue Mi Terry, and Major Jessica Taylor, USAFR and Princeton University, in conversation with Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1712-new-nuclear-dynamics-of-northeast-asia

September 15, 2023 - Join us for the New York City book launch of The Sister: North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, The Most Dangerous Woman in the World. Hear from author Dr. Sung-Yoon Lee, Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in conversation with policy director Jonathan Corrado. This newly released book chronicles the rise and importance of Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Dr. Lee describes Kim Yo Jong as “ruthless and incredibly dangerous… a princess by birth with great expectations for her macabre kingdom, she was brought up to believe it is her mission to reunite North Korea with the South or die trying.” For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1704-the-sister

September 13, 2023 - Join two Korean-American picture book writers as they discuss the many different layers of consideration, introspection, and deliberation that go into conceiving and writing picture books, and the importance of humor and diversity in children's literature. For many young readers, being able to see themselves reflected in the books they read is a profound experience. Seeing and reading accurate representations of one's own identity and culture provide a sense of visibility and relatability. Not only are diverse representations in children’s books important for children of color, but they’re important for all children, as they offer a chance to learn realities and experiences different from their own and to appreciate that difference. Frances Cha, the bestselling author of If I Had Your Face who has just written a humorous picture book about centuries-old dokkaebi journeying from Korea to modern New York, will be in conversation with Aram Kim, author, illustrator and designer of children's books, about writing and illustrating Korean-themed picture books for children. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1710-behind-the-scenes-writing-a-picture-book