James Younil Auh | Dean, Kyung Hee Cyber University In late November, I traveled to Yanbian in northeastern China for the inaugural Northeast Asia Cooperation Workshop, a joint initiative between KCPC and the Hanns Seidel Foundation. On the surface, it was a modest gathering: a series of meetings in Yanji, a few days of travel along the borderlands, and conversations shared around a table with scholars, NGO leaders, government officials, journalists, and businesspeople from the Yanbian Korean...

J.R. Kim | President, KCPC North Korea commemorates July 27—the date the Korean War armistice was signed in 1953—as “Victory Day.” From early childhood, North Koreans are taught that the Korean War was a “war of aggression” launched by the puppet regime of Syngman Rhee in South Korea, backed by American imperialists. According to this narrative, the North fought a counteroffensive war to liberate the South Korean people from U.S. imperialism. Despite failing to unify the peninsula under...

Daniel Pinkston, Ph.D.  l Expert Advisor, KCPC If we seek to answer questions regarding U.S. foreign policy and its implications for the Korean Peninsula, we must consider the different levels of analysis in international relations. The actions of states and non-state actors are influenced by factors at the individual, state, and systemic levels. Structural theories of international relations focus on structural variables such as the distribution of power, wealth, and the interests of the...