February 11, 2019—
In this episode, experts discuss the upcoming Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi. CSIS's Korea Chair, Victor Cha, and host H. Andrew Schwartz welcome Dr. Ramon Pacheco Pardo, KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Institute for European Studies and Reader in International Relations at King's College London. Pardo offers the view from Europe.
February 7, 2019, by Robert King—
Ambassador Robert King analyzes the striking difference between President Trump’s treatment of North Korea’s human rights abuses in his State of the Union Speech in 2018 and in 2019... While commentators have observed striking similarities between President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in the State of the Union…
January 31, 2019—
Tom Karako, senior fellow with the International Security Program and director of the Missile Defense Project at CSIS, joins resident Korea expert Victor Cha and host Andrew Schwartz to discuss the 2019 Missile Defense Review. They also discuss the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment and how North Korea’s threat will play out as President Trump is expected to meet with Kim Jong-un next month.
January 30, 2019—
This Living History features an interview with Ambassador Kathleen Stephens who served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2008 to 2011. In the first of this two-part interview series with Ambassador Stephens, she reflects on her experience serving as a young Peace Corps volunteer from 1975 to 1977 in rural South Chungcheong province and as a junior diplomatic officer in the early 1980s at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.
January 30, 2019, by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. and Victor Cha—
As of January 20, 2019, commercial satellite imagery of the Sohae Satellite Launch Facility (Tongchang-ri) shows that no new dismantling activity has occurred at the vertical test engine stand or the rail-mounted processing building since August 2018.
January 21, 2019, by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., Victor Cha and Lisa Collins—
Located 212 kilometers north of the DMZ, Sino-ri is an operational missile base that houses a regiment-sized unit equipped with Nodong-1/-2 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM). It is one of the oldest of approximately 20 undeclared missile operating bases and is reported to serve as the headquarters of the Strategic Rocket Forces Nodong missile brigade. It may have also played a role in development of the newest generation Pukkuksong-2 (KN-15) ballistic missile first tested or unveiled by North Korea on February 12, 2017.
January 7, 2019, by Victor Cha, Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. and Marie DuMond—
Should inter-Korean cooperation result in the re-connection of the railways in North and South Korea, the rail networks of the Korean peninsula could then be integrated into a rail network spanning the Eurasian continent through China and Russia. If actualized, this would mark a significant diplomatic and geopolitical accomplishment for the Korean peninsula. Nonetheless, a long and significant modernization process will need to take place to fully integrate the systems in a commercially viable way.
December 18, 2018—
This Living History interview features Ambassador Chung Chong Wook, former Republic of Korea ambassador to China and former senior secretary to President Kim Young-sam for national security and foreign policy. Ambassador Chung recounts his personal experience serving as a senior government official during the summer of 1994 that was marked by a series of critical events in inter-Korean and U.S.-South Korea-North Korea relations.
December 18, 2018, by Robert King—
After a silence of several months on North Korea’s human rights record, the U.S. government is again calling attention to the issue, as Ambassador Robert R. King writes in his commentary... After a silence of several months on North Korea’s human rights record, the U.S. government…
December 10, 2018, by Victor Cha, Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. and Marie DuMond—
North and South Korea are moving forward with inter-Korean railway cooperation as a key engine for advancing inter-Korean reconciliation and building the infrastructure for eventual unification. Once connected, however, a significant modernization and harmonization process will need to take place to fully integrate the systems in a commercially viable way.
