The Impossible State Center for Strategic and International Studies

On December 1st, the CSIS Korea Chair held a special discussion on the state of North Korea’s economy today and what scenarios could be expected for its economy in the future. The panels examined the impact of sanctions, Covid-19, and natural disasters on North Korea’s trade, industry, markets, and finance sector. The experts also explored potential scenarios for North Korea’s economy in the event of a diplomatic breakthrough on denuclearization. In this episode, we highlight the keynote address that opened up the session from Mr. Alex Wong, deputy assistant secretary for North Korea in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and deputy special representative for North Korea, U.S. Department of State.
Please click here to watch the full online event.

In this episode, Andrew and Dr. Victor Cha invite a panel of guests to discuss the state of trilateral relations between Japan, South Korea, and the United States. To analyze what events have shifted the relationships, we are joined by Dr. Michael Green, Dr. Eva Pejsova, and Dr. Ramon Pacheco-Pardo.
Dr. Green is senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at CSIS, and director of Asian Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Dr. Pejsova is senior japan fellow at the Institute for European Studies of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (IES-VUB), and associate fellow at the French Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS). Dr. Pacheco-Pardo is Korea Chair at the Institute for European Studies of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (IES-VUB) and reader (associate professor) in International Relations at King's College London.

In this episode, Andrew Schwartz, Dr. Victor Cha, and Dr. Sue Mi Terry discuss how President-elect Joe Biden should approach diplomacy with North Korea, as it remains one of the U.S.'s top national security priorities. They expand on Dr. Cha's recent Foreign Affairs article, "Engaging North Korea Anew," to analyze what methods have been unsuccessful in the past and what new strategies could be helpful for the incoming administration.

In this episode, Dr. Victor Cha is joined by Dr. Toby Dalton and Dr. Sue Mi Terry to discuss the U.S.-South Korea alliance and what that could mean for South Korean nuclear proliferation. They draw on Dr. Dalton and Ain Han's article, "Elections, Nukes, and the Future of the South Korea-U.S. Alliance," to unpack South Korean opinions on acquiring nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula, as well as how the November 2020 U.S. elections could affect future security relations between the alliances.
Dr. Toby Dalton is co-director and a senior fellow of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served in a variety of high-level positions at the U.S. Department of Energy, including acting director for the Office of Nuclear Safeguards and Security; and senior policy advisor to the Office of Nonproliferation and International Security.

This episode is from the CSIS Korea Chair's live YouTube series, "The Capital Cable." Special guest Ambassador Caroline Kennedy joins Ambassador Mark Lippert, Dr. Victor Cha, and Dr. Sue Mi Terry for a conversation on her time as ambassador to Japan (2013-2017), the U.S.-Korea-Japan trilateral relationship, and the importance of female leadership in national security.

In this episode, Dr. Victor Cha and Andrew Schwartz are joined by Dr. Gi-Wook Shin to discuss the state of South Korea's democracy. Dr. Shin draws on his recent article "Korean Democracy is Sinking under the Guise of the Rule of Law," to examine signs of democratic backsliding in the Moon administration, and considers it part of a broader trend in a global decline of democracy.
Dr. Gi-Wook Shin is director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in the Sociology Department and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a professor of sociology, all at Stanford University.