North Korea senior analysts Robert Carlin and Glyn Ford speak about the political and economic implications of the party congress with senior director Stephen Noerper. Stanford University’s Carlin and Track2Asia’s Ford provide critical insight on possibilities for change, impasse and next steps in this timely, newsmaker event. This program is made possible thanks to support from the Korea Foundation.
The Columbia University's Center for Korean Research (CKR) is a promotional partner for this program.
North Korea’s Eighth Party Congress
with
Robert Carlin and Glyn Ford
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 | 12 PM
The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Bob Carlin is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). From both in and out of government, he has been following North Korea since 1974 and has made 25 trips there. He recently co-authored a lengthy paper to be published by the London International Institute of Strategic Studies, entitled "Politics, Economics and Security: Implications of North Korean Reform." Carlin served as senior policy advisor at the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) from 2002-2006, leading numerous delegations to the North for talks and observing developments in-country during the long trips that entailed. From 1989-2002, he was chief of the Northeast Asia Division in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, U.S. Department of State. During much of that period, he also served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Special Ambassador for talks with North Korea, and took part in all phases of US-DPRK negotiations from 1992-2000. From 1971-1989, Carlin was an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he received the Exceptional Analyst Award from the Director of Central Intelligence.
In over 25 years in the EP Glyn Ford developed an unrivaled expertise on East Asia as a Member of the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committees. When he left the European Parliament in 2009, Glyn Ford founded the consulting company Polint, which he still leads today. However, in parallel, he continued his political and academic engagement with the DPRK and the East Asian region. These activities, which have always been conducted on a ‘non-profit’ basis, are now carried out in the framework of Track2Asia. Thanks to his engagement with the DPRK, he is now considered one of the most pre-eminent European experts on the Korean peninsula in particular, and East Asia in general. A sample of this expertise can be seen in his books “North Korea on the Brink” (Pluto Press,2008 and later translated into Japanese and Korean) and “Talking to North Korea” (Pluto Press,2018).
