In October's Journal of Democracy, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center director Gi-Wook Shin and 2016-17 Koret Fellow Rennie Moon examine Park Geun Hye's fall from power and impeachment, the challenges facing President Moon and the Democratic Party, and what it all spells for the future of Korean democracy.

Michael Minyoung Lee has won the 6th annual Korea Program Prize for Writing in Korean Studies for his paper entitled "North Korean Food Shortages, 1945-1946." Michael graduated from the Center for East Asian Studies M.A. program in 2017. Yong Suk Lee, Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, said about Michael's paper: "Michael Lee's paper sheds light on a relatively less known historical fact regarding famine in Soviet occupied northern Korea after World War 2. He presents multiple evidence from different perspectives and his writing is clear."

Sponsored by the Korea Program and the Center for East Asian Studies, the writing prize recognizes and rewards outstanding examples of writing by Stanford students in an essay, term paper or thesis produced during the current academic year in any discipline within the area of Korean studies, broadly defined. The competition is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Past Recipients:

In association with the Sejong Institute, a think tank in South Korea, Shorenstein APARC published a report from the seventeenth session of the semiannual Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum held on June 29, 2017. The forum continued its focus on Northeast Asian regional dynamics, the North Korea problem, and the state of the U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance. Participants engaged in candid, productive discussion about issues relating to these topics.

In Superficial Korea, a book recently published in South Korea, Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin shares his observations on and provides recommendations for social maladies currently affecting Korean society. Shin sees a problematic level of superficiality in a number of aspects of today's Korea: its interpersonal relations, policies and social systems, and rules and regulations. After explaining his diagnosis in the first part of the book, Shin goes on to offer a prescription in the form of lessons that can be learned from Silicon Valley’s culture. The final section of the book touches on issues in which he specializes as an academic—and which have been of the utmost interest to Koreans in recent days—that is, South Korea’s relations with North Korea and other players on the global stage.

Superficial Korea is in Korean; interviews with Dr. Shin and reviews of the book can be found below:

Stanford Daily (interview, in English)

Korea Herald (Op-Ed, in English)

Korea Daily (interview, in Korean)

Sisa Journal (interview, in Korean)

Munwha Ilbo (interview, in Korean)

Yonhap News (book review, in Korean)

Munwha Ilbo (book review, in Korean)

Kyunghyang Shinmun (book review, in Korean)

A recently published book in Korean by Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) director Gi-Wook Shin has been featured in various media in South Korea. In this book, Superficial Korea, the author discussed the importance of inter-Korea dialogue in dealing with North Korea issues.

The interviews and comments can be viewed in the following links:

Munwha Ilbo (interview in Korean)

Yonhap News (book review in Korean)

Munwha Ilbo (book review in Korean)

Kyunghyang Shinmun (book review in Korean)

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A career diplomat by training, Kim most recently served as senior secretary to the president for foreign affairs and national security in South Korea from October 2015 to May 2017 during which he played a key role in enacting the North Korea human rights law. He led the South Korean negotiation team for inter-Korean dialogue that led to the reunion of separated families in 2014.

"Kyou Hyun Kim brings wealth of knowledge in the Korean affairs to Shorenstein APARC. He has decades of experience in diplomacy and national security, and it is very timely that he joins the Korea Program as this year’s Koret Fellow,” said Gi-Wook Shin, director of Shorenstein APARC.

Kim’s extensive diplomatic career includes serving as first vice foreign minister (2013-14), deputy foreign minister for political affairs (2012-13), ambassador for performance evaluation, and special advisor to the minister of foreign affairs (2010-12). He also served at the South Korean embassy in the United States as minister for political affairs. His 37 years of public service was mostly dealing with South Korea’s foreign and security policies and North Korean affairs.

During his fellowship, Kim will review South Korea’s past administrations’ policies toward North Korea and aim to focus on a path leading to unification of two Koreas for permanent peace and stability in and around the Korean Peninsula.  He will also attempt to map out ways to narrow the physical, economic, societal and identity gaps between South and North Korea in order to help the South Korean public to tolerate and accept North Koreans as equal citizens in a unified Korea. His two main research questions will be (1) how to build the internal capability for socioeconomic transformation in North Korea, and (2) how to build domestic support for reunification in South Korea.

Kim received a Doctor of Dental Surgery from the School of Dentistry at Seoul National University, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

Supported by the Koret Foundation, the fellowship brings leading professionals to Stanford to conduct research on contemporary Korean affairs with the broad aim of strengthening ties between the United States and Korea.