About the Speakers

Chad O’Carroll is the founder of Korea Risk Group, a North Korea specialized news, information and data service that through its NK Pro and NK News websites serves researchers, academics and business people around the world. O’Carroll established the NK News website in 2010 while living in Washington, DC. He was a Fellow of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism (CUNY) and was previously the Director of Communications at the Korea Economic Institute of America. He has an MA in Nuclear Non-proliferation & Intl’ Security from Kings College London and a BA in International Relations from Sussex University.

Jan Janowski graduated with an MA in Political Science and Diplomacy from Korea University in Seoul and after working as a consultant, author and freelance journalist, joined the Federal Foreign Office of Germany in 2012. He served as 2nd Secretary in the German Embassy in Pyongyang from 2012 to 2015 and upon his return to Berlin, assumed the post as Korean Peninsula Desk Officer in the FFO main office. While working on Korean issues in Berlin, he travels frequently for 5-6 week missions to the DPRK to support the German Embassy in Pyongyang as 1st Secretary. As a fluent Korean speaker, he is also the main interpreter and translator for Korean in the German Federal government. Janowski teaches summer intensive courses in North Korean Studies in Seoul and Germany.