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Quick Take - North Korea’s New Posture, with Dr. Soo Kim

Media

In 2024, North Korea’s leadership has made a number of striking changes to its foreign policy, including abandoning its goal of unification and declaring South Korea its “principal enemy.” Pyongyang has also doubled down on its relationship with Moscow, shipping artillery and missiles off to Russia for use on the battlefields of Ukraine. Speculation has also risen that Kim Jong Un may have made the strategic decision to go to war, or to engage in provocations against the US-ROK Alliance. What is motivating these policies and what does the future hold? Join us for an analytic perspective from Dr. Soo Kim, Principal Technical Advisor at LMI Consulting and formerly the Central Intelligence Agency and RAND Corporation, in conversation with policy director Jonathan Corrado.

 

Quick Take
North Korea’s New Posture
with Dr. Soo Kim

Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 4 PM


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 


About the Speaker:

 

Dr. Soo Kim is a Principal Technical Advisor at LMI Consulting, where she advises clients in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense of Acquisition & Sustainment on strategy and writes speeches for senior leadership. Previously, she was a Policy Practice Area Lead at LMI, overseeing the firm's growth, capability development, and innovation for the practice area. Prior to joining LMI, she has had an extensive career in the US government, think tanks/academia, and the private sector. She is recognized as one of the world's leading specialists on national security and foreign policy.

Dr. Kim began her career in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where she produced intelligence assessments and briefed senior officials in the US government on North Korean leadership, nuclear strategy, and foreign policy. She served on several interagency task forces during the North Korean nuclear and leadership crises, and also held a stint at the Department of State's Bureau of East Asian Affairs. Dr. Kim also shaped and authored several strategies for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and was an adjunct professor at American University, teaching courses on East Asian history and current affairs.

Prior to LMI, Dr. Kim served as a researcher at the RAND Corporation, where she authored assessments on security issues in the Indo-Pacific, China, Russia, the intelligence community, supply chains and economic competition for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Army, Air Force, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and private foundations. Her commentaries have been published in leading foreign policy publications, including the Council on Foreign Relations, Nikkei Asia, The Diplomat, Lowy Institute, and The Hill. Her analysis on the Korean Peninsula is often featured in major international media, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, BBC, CNN, NBC, and CBS.

Dr. Kim received her doctorate in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins University SAIS, as well as an MIPP and MA from the same institution, and a BA in French from Yale University.