Author and journalist Blaine Harden speaks about his remarkable and harrowing account of refugee Shin Dong-hyuk’s birth into and eventual escape from the North Korean gulag. A monumental and moving book, Harden reveals the hardships of prison life and provides a lasting testimony to the endurance of the human spirit. This literary event features a special display of refugee artwork. Book Cafe: Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey… Read More

University of Washington Korean Studies Director Clark W. Sorensen discusses Reassessing the Park Chung Hee Era, 1961-1979, his and Professor Hyung-a Kim's edited volume on development, political thought, democracy, and the cultural influence of the Park era. An important addition to work on this critical period, especially in light of the upcoming national election in Korea, this highly readable volume draws perspectives from across the political spectrum. Professor Sorensen will… Read More

William Rhodes, retired senior advisor at Citigroup and board member of The Korea Society, will discuss his newly released Banker to the World on July 21 at noon. Ambassador Thomas Hubbard, chairman of The Korea Society, will moderate the discussion as Rhodes reflects on decades of experience in international finance, especially the lessons learned in Korea during the financial crisis of the late 1990s. On July 19, Bill Rhodes will… Read More

In marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War, The Korea Society salutes the late Richard Kim, as Penguin Classics re-releases his National Book Award-nominated The Martyred. Kim's first novel is a critically acclaimed bestseller about the Korean War, and was later made into a play, opera, and film. Book Cafe: The Martyred Re-Released Thursday, June 23 with Susan Choi AuthorA Person of Interest, American Woman Read More

Award-winning author, editor and photojournalist Brenda Paik Sunoo presents images from Moon Tides: Jeju Island Grannies and the Sea. Jeju Island’s sea women, or haenyeo, scour the sea floor as their maternal ancestors did, harvesting seaweed, octopus, sea urchins, turban shells, and abalone. Driven by economics, these women divers plunge more than 20 meters underwater, hold their breath for over two minutes, and labor well into their 80s. Their numbers… Read More

Harvard University Professor Ezra Vogel visits The Korea Society to discuss the monumental new political history he co-edited, The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. South Korea was mired in poverty in 1959, yet by 1979 was gaining significant economic influence both regionally and globally. Park is credited with modernizing South Korea, but at a huge political and social cost. The state was predatory yet technocratic, reform-minded,… Read More

Ben Ryder Howe, formerly of The Paris Review and a contributor to The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Outside, discusses his recently published memoir, My Korean Deli. Howe describes the trials and triumphs of his Korean-born wife’s decision to repay her parents' self-sacrifice by buying them a store. My Korean Deli follows the store's tumultuous life, and paints the portrait of an extremely unlikely partnership among characters from Brooklyn, Seoul,… Read More

The Korea Society presents Dong Jin Kim, author of Crusader for Korea, a biography of Dr. Homer B. Hulbert (1863-1949), a “hidden hero” of Korean independence. The publication is the culmination of years of effort by the author to secure a proper place in Korean history for the accomplishments of foreigners, such as Dr. Hulbert, who lived their lives in the service of Korea. Wednesday, April 6 Homer Hulbert: Crusader… Read More

Prof. Jin Young Choi speaks with author Kyung-sook Shin about her novel 'Please Look After Mom' March 24, 2011 Read More

In 1993, Cullen Thomas was a young man who wanted to see the world and South Korea was one of his first stops. Convicted of smuggling hashish and sentenced to 3 ½ years in Korean prison, the world he ended up seeing—one in which the Confucian customs of Korean society take on a harsh character—wasn’t the one he expected. Reading from his new memoir Brother One Cell: An American Coming… Read More