The Future of Northeast Asia’s Peace and Security: The Obama Administration’s Emerging Korea Policy
On April 6, 2009, USKI and the National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC) hosted an expert panel to discuss the recommended priorities for the Obama Administration's emerging Korea policy.
Opening the event, were remarks by USKI Chairman Don Oberdorfer, ROK Ambassador to the U.S. Han Duk-soo, NUAC Vice Chairman Lee Ki-Taek, and NUAC President - Washington Chapter Lee Yong-Jin.
Panelists featured included: Jared Genser, Freedom Now President; Ambassador Charles "Jack" Pritchard, Korea Economic Institute President; Alan Romberg, Stimson Center Distinguished Fellow; and Joel Wit, USKI Visiting Scholar.
View CSPAN coverage of the event here.
Download transcripts of the panel discussion.
PARTICIPANT BIOS
Jared Genser is the President of Freedom Now and a partner in the global government relations group of DLA Piper LLP. He is currently a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania teaching a weekly seminar entitled The UN Security Council in the 21st Century: Operations, Impact, and Reform. He was a 2006-2007 Visiting Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy. His human rights clients have included former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Aung San Suu Kyi, Desmond Tutu, and Elie Wiesel. Previously, Jared was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, the global strategy consulting firm.
Genser holds a B.S. from Cornell University, a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was an Alumni Public Service Fellow, and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. He has published op-eds on human rights topics in such publications as the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal Asia, International Herald Tribune, Washington Times, South China Morning Post, The Independent (UK), The Nation (Bangkok), and The Star (Johannesburg), among others. He is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Fellow of the British American Project.
Ambassador Han Duk-soo became the 38th Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea after his nomination was approved by the National Assembly on April 2, 2007, and he served in that capacity until February 2008.
Prior to serving as Prime Minister, Ambassador Han held numerous high-ranking positions in the Korean government. In 2006, he was named Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Facilitating KORUS FTA following his service as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance & Economy. Before being named Minister of Government Policy Coordination in early 2004, he worked as President of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade.
As Korea’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Ambassador Han went to Paris in 2001 before returning to Seoul later that year to serve at the Blue House, first as Senior Secretary to the President for Policy and Planning and later as Senior Secretary to the President for Economic Affairs.
Ambassador Han was the Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1998 to 2001. Previously, he was Assistant Minister for International Trade and Vice Minister at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. From 1993 to 1994, he served as Secretary to the President for Economic Affairs.
During his distinguished career in government, Ambassador Han has made many contributions to the development and modernization of the Korean economy. Deregulation, market opening and strengthening of the market economy have been the three pillars of his philosophy and framework for the economic policy of Korea.
Ambassador Han earned a B.A. in economics from Seoul National University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He has been awarded two Order of Public Service and Merit Medals. Ambassador Han is married to Choi Ah Young.
Lee Ki-Taek was born in Pohang City, Gyeongbuk, in 1937 and grew up in Busan City. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Korea University. In 1982, he visited the U.S. as a guest faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.
Lee's political career began in 1967 when he joined the Sinmin Party, which was the leading opposition party at that time. He was elected to serve as a national assemblyman and was named as the secretary general of the party in 1976. He was re-elected seven times and served as the president of Democratic Party from 1992 to 1994.
For 40 years, Lee had served as a leader of an opposing party. In the meantime, he was deputized for the president in 1999 when he joined the Grand National Party, which was the governing party. After joining the Grand National Party, he worked as a member of a standing committee for supporting the president candidate of the party in 2007. This meant that he was working with both the governing party and non-governing parties because South Korea needed him most in terms of his political career.
In 2008, Mr. Lee was appointed as the Senior Vice-President of the National Unification Advisory Council in an effort to bring a peaceful reunification for the Korean Peninsula.
Lee Yong-Jin joined the National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC) as the President of the Washington Chapter in 2005 after a long career promoting human rights and democracy. Lee has served as President for both the Institute for Human Rights Study of Korea and the Union of Korean Democrats in Washington. Prior to that, Lee spent a decade as a Member of the Central Committee of the National Union for Democracy and Unification while serving as the Vice President of the Union of Korean Democratic Youth in Washington.
Charles L. (Jack) Pritchard is the President of the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) in Washington. Prior to joining KEI, he was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC from September 2003 until February 2006. At Brookings, he focused on U.S. policy toward North Korea as well as the evolving nature of the United States-Japan foreign and security relationship. Ambassador Pritchard served as ambassador and special envoy for negotiations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and United States representative to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization in the administration of President George W. Bush from April 2001 until September 2003. Previously, he served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Asian Affairs in the administration of President William J. Clinton. During the Clinton administration, Ambassador Pritchard was also the Director of Asian Affairs in the National Security Council and deputy chief negotiator for the Four Party Peace Talks, which aimed at reducing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Ambassador Pritchard is a former United States Army officer and attaché in Tokyo, Japan. He received a B.A. in political science from Mercer University, Macon, Georgia; an M.A. in international studies from the University of Hawaii; and a diploma from the Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo. He is the recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.
Alan D. Romberg is a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC. Before joining the Stimson Center in September 2000, he enjoyed a distinguished career working on Asian issues in and out of government, including twenty years as a US Foreign Service Officer. Romberg, who was Principal Deputy Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and Deputy Spokesman of the Department, served in various capacities dealing with East Asia, including Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs, Member of the Policy Planning Staff for East Asia, and staff member at the National Security Council for China. He served overseas in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Additionally, Romberg spent almost ten years as the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and was Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy.
Romberg holds an M.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Joel S. Wit is concurrently a Senior Research Fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and Columbia University’s Weatherhead Institute for East Asian Studies. Wit worked for 15 years in the U.S. Department of State on arms control and non-proliferation issues. From 1995-2001 he was the Coordinator for Implementation of the U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework. After leaving the State Department, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Wit is the co-author of Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis, published by the Brookings Institute Press in 2004. He has also written numerous journal and newspaper articles on North Korea.