Ambassador Julie Turner was sworn in as the U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues on October 13, 2023. Ambassador Turner is globally recognized an expert in the area of human rights and democracy and has worked over the past 20 years to strengthen democratic institutions and promote human rights throughout the East Asia and Pacific Region. Most recently, she served as the Office Director in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) Office of East Asia and the Pacific at the U.S. Department of State and previously was the Director for Southeast Asia at the National Security Council. During her time at the State Department, she served as the special assistant to the first U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights and worked as a program analyst in the Bureau of Information Resource Management Office of eDiplomacy. As a career civil service employee and former Presidential Management Fellow, Ambassador Turner has dedicated her career to advancing human rights around the world. Ambassador Turner is a graduate of Pepperdine University and the University of Maryland.

Dr. Katrin Fraser Katz, is The Korea Society's inaugural Van Fleet Nonresident Senior Fellow. Dr. Katz is a former director for Japan, Korea, and oceanic affairs on the staff of the National Security Council, where she served from 2007 to 2008. She is also a Professor of Practice in the Department of Political Science and the Master of Arts in International Administration (MAIA) program at the University of Miami and an Adjunct Fellow (Non-resident) in the Office of the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. Previously, she was a special assistant to the assistant secretary for international organization affairs at the U.S. Department of State and an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. She was previously an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University and has also taught at Georgetown University. In 2017, Dr. Katz received the inaugural Sherman Family Korea Emerging Scholar Lecture Series award from The Korea Society. Dr. Katz’s research, which has been supported by grants from the Korea Foundation and the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, explores the interplay of cooperation and conflict in East Asia’s political, economic, and security dynamics. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University; a master’s degree in East Asian and international security studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she was awarded the John C. Perry Scholarship for East Asian Studies; and a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in international relations and Japanese from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sean Chung serves as the CEO of HanVoice, an international charity based in Canada dedicated to improving human rights in North Korea. He successfully led advocacy efforts in Canada to create a historic public policy that allows North Korean refugees to access Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees pathway in 2021. Sean has organized a number of global and regional summits with human rights, humanitarian aid, development, and security communities and governments working across the Korean Peninsula. Before his work at HanVoice, he was a consultant at the International Organization for Migration and an officer at the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth in New York. He earned his BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto.

James Heenan is the Representative at the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, which is focused on the human rights situation in the DPRK. He has worked in human rights for almost 30 years. He was previously Head of the UN Human Rights Office in Palestine, Chief of the Treaty Body Section (CEDAW, CRC, CRPD) at headquarters, OHCHR Country Representative in Cambodia, Legal Advisor on the Desmond Tutu-led Gaza Commission of Inquiry, and he led headquarters work on amicus curiae briefs by High Commissioner Louise Arbour (notably Boumediene v. Bush in the US Supreme Court). He was a member of the three person UNHCR Panel of Inquiry into the Xenophobic Violence in South Africa in 2008. Prior to joining the UN, he was a research fellow at the Law Department at the European University Institute where with Philip Alston he led the EU academic project that proposed the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. James practiced as a criminal lawyer in London and civil lawyer in Sydney. He has published on international human rights. James holds an LLM (EUI), and an LLB (Hons) and BA from the University of Queensland.