About the Speakers

HWANG JIHWAN is a professor of international relations at the University of Seoul, Korea. He was a year-long visiting scholar at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and also taught at George Washington University. He has served in several advisory positions in the Korean government, including President’s Committee for Unification Preparation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Unification. His publications include “The Paradox of South Korea’s Unification Diplomacy,” and “The Two Koreas after U.S. Unipolarity.” He is a graduate of Seoul National University and received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Colorado, Boulder.

KIM JINA is a Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and an Adjunct Professor at Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies. She is specializing in US-North Korea relations and nuclear nonproliferation. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is on the Advisory Committee for the Blue House National Security Office and US-ROK Combined Forces Command and on the Evaluation Committee for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She served the Advisory Committee for the Blue House’s Public Information Committee (2017-2019), Ministry of National Unification (2015-2018), and National Policy Review Board for the Prime Minister’s Office (2014-2017). She authored The North Korean Nuclear Weapons Crisis (Palgrave McMillan, 2014) and co-authored Korean Peninsula and Indo-Pacific Power Politics (Routledge, forthcoming), North Korea and Asia’s Evolving Nuclear Landscape (NBR, 2017) and many others. Her recent publication in academic journals includes “The Dilemma of Nuclear Disarmament: The Case of the DPRK” (The International Spectator, forthcoming), “Issues Regarding North Korean Denuclearization Roadmap with a Focus on Implications from the Iran Nuclear Deal” (Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, 2018), “Assessing Export Controls of Strategic Items to North Korea” (Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, 2017), and “North Korea’s Strategic Alliance towards Becoming a Nuclear Weapons State” (Journal of International Relations, 2017).

LI NAN is a senior fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of American Studies. His research mainly focuses on U.S- Korea relations and China’s policy towards Korean Peninsula. Dr. Li has been a visiting Scholar at Seoul National University (2014-2015), Brookings Institution (2012), Johns Hopkins SAIS (2011-2012), Kim Il-Sung University (2010) and Arizona State University (2004-2005). He is a graduate of the Renmin University of China where he earned a PhD in National Strategy, MA in International Relations & Political Science, and BA in International Politics & Political Science. His main publications: From the Hawk Engagement to the Six Party Talks: US Policies towards North Korea(book, upcoming 2019) A Study of Contemporary Western Theories of Grand Strategy (book), “U.S. Food Aid Policy towards North Korean and its Evaluation, ”(The Journal of American Studies, 2014), “US Policy towards DPRK Since the Nuclear Crisis of 2013,”(Blue Book, the CASS Press, 2014) “Evaluating the Bush Administration’s North Korea Strategy,” (Journal of Contemporary Asia- Pacific Studies, 2009), “An Emotional and Strategic Partner: China’s Humanitarian Aid to North Korea in the 21st Century.”(Brookings Institution, 2013).

PU XIAOYU is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Political Science Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is a Public Intellectuals Program fellow with the National Committee on United States-China Relations and a non-resident senior fellow with the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C. In the 2012-13 academic year, Pu was a postdoctoral fellow in the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University. In 2016, he was a Stanton Fellow at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in Brazil. Pu is the author of Rebranding China: Contested Status Signaling in the Changing Global Order (The Studies in Asian Security Series, Stanford University Press, 2019). His research has appeared in International Security, International Affairs, The China Quarterly and The Chinese Journal of International Politics.