Are We Back to Square One with North Korea?

Friday, July 10, 2020
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
(Pacific)

Panel discussion on U.S.-North Korea relations co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center​

This event will take place on Zoom. Register here: https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_F-MOOfvpSxWbYwfYRa1phQ

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have intensified sharply in recent weeks, exposing the volatility of the region’s political and security conditions. No progress in denuclearization talks has been made since "no deal" in Hanoi early last year and inter-Korean relations have soured. Pyongyang abruptly cut off all communication lines with Seoul in protest against anti-DPRK leaflets sent across the border, demolished a joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong, and vowed to redeploy troops to frontline areas. At the same time, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the DPRK, as its economy shrinks under pressure from international sanctions and coronavirus-constrained China trade.

As part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies’ (FSI) summer seminar series, this event offers an expert analysis of where we stand with North Korea after active summit diplomacy under the Trump administration and where we are heading amid the growing friction on the Korean Peninsula and the approaching U.S. presidential election. Gi-Wook Shin, director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and Korea Program, will moderate the conversation with panelists Robert Carlin, a visiting scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Victor Cha, professor of government at Georgetown University and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Oriana Mastro, Assistant Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and an FSI Centre Fellow starting August 2020, and Siegfried Hecker, senior fellow emeritus at FSI and professor emeritus in the Department of Management Science and Engineering.