Undraa Agvaanluvsan is a native of Mongolia. She is currently a visiting professor at CISAC. Undraa received her bachelor's (1994) and master's (1995) degrees in physics from the National University of Mongolia, and a diploma in high energy physics at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy in 1997. Undraa obtained her PhD in 2002 at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, studying nuclear reactions and quantum chaos in nuclei. Following completion of her doctorate, she conducted postdoctoral research work in the Nuclear Experimental Physics group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She published and co-authored several dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals.

In the past several years, Undraa's research interests have broadened to include policy studies. In the policy arena, she served as an adviser to Mongolia's Minister of Foreign Affairs. As an advocate of scientific education, Undraa serves as director of the Mongolian-American (MonAme) Scientific Research Center in Ulaanbaatar, which focuses on energy, the environment, and mineral processing technologies.

Her research interests at CISAC focus on nuclear energy studies. More specifically, Undraa is studying uranium mining and processing, front-end issues of the nuclear fuel-cycle, nuclear fuel supplies, and nuclear energy policy. Using her prior experience with scientific research in quantum chaos, she is working with her CISAC colleague Kate Marvel to study the resiliency of the electricity grid network when stressed with the addition of more power sources, including nuclear power generation.

At Stanford, Undraa has directed undergraduate research through the Bing Overseas Studies Program. She also teaches nuclear energy policy in the International Policy Studies program.

David Holloway is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, a professor of political science, and an FSI senior fellow. He was co-director of CISAC from 1991 to 1997, and director of FSI from 1998 to 2003. His research focuses on the international history of nuclear weapons, on science and technology in the Soviet Union, and on the relationship between international history and international relations theory. His book Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956 (Yale University Press, 1994) was chosen by the New York Times Book Review as one of the 11 best books of 1994, and it won the Vucinich and Shulman prizes of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. It has been translated into six languages, most recently into Czech in 2008. Holloway also wrote The Soviet Union and the Arms Race (1983) and co-authored The Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative: Technical, Political and Arms Control Assessment (1984). He has contributed to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Foreign Affairs, and other scholarly journals.

Since joining the Stanford faculty in 1986 -- first as a professor of political science and later (in 1996) as a professor of history as well -- Holloway has served as chair and co-chair of the International Relations Program (1989-1991), and as associate dean in the School of Humanities and Sciences (1997-1998). Before coming to Stanford, he taught at the University of Lancaster (1967-1970) and the University of Edinburgh (1970-1986). Born in Dublin, Ireland, he received his undergraduate degree in modern languages and literature, and his PhD in social and political sciences, both from Cambridge University.

Matthias Englert is a postdoctoral fellow at CISAC. Before joining CISAC in 2009, he was a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Group Science Technology and Security (IANUS) and a PhD student at the department of physics at Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. 

His major research interests include nonproliferation, disarmament, arms control, nuclear postures and warheads, fissile material and production technologies, the civil use of nuclear power and its role in future energy scenarios and the possibility of nuclear terrorism.  His research during his stay at CISAC focuses primarily on the technology of gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment, the implications of their use for the nonproliferation regime, and on technical and political measures to manage proliferation risks.

Just how easy (or difficult) is it for North Koreans to watch banned American movies or listen to Korean-language news broadcasts that Pyongyang spends a great deal of time condemning and resources trying to block?  The North Korean border has become increasingly porous, with news reports suggesting that American and South Korean films have become so popular that the North Korean authorities have been forced to issue edicts on the length of men’s hair, for example.  At the same time, several American, South Korean and Japanese radio stations are targeting North Korea through short and medium-wave broadcasts.  A growing number of defectors report having tasted such forbidden fruit before leaving North Korea.  To what extent is banned media undermining the regime’s control of the flow of information?  Do such broadcasts encourage North Koreans to defect?

Peter M. Beck is the 2009-10 Pantech Fellow at Stanford University’s Asia Pacific Research Center.  He also teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. and Ewha Woman's University in Seoul.  He also writes a monthly column for Weekly Chosun and The Korea Herald.  Previously, he was the executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and directed the International Crisis Group’s Northeast Asia Project in Seoul.  He was also the Director of Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington.  He has published over 100 academic and short articles and testified before Congress.

Two major unresolved issues from World War II in the Pacific are the use of the atomic bomb by the United States, which destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the use of foreign slave labor for war-related production by Japan. Koreans and Allied POWs were among those who were victims of both atrocities. While limited compensation for non-Japanese hibakusha have been won in Japanese courts in recent years, no compensation has been forthcoming for their labor under armed confinement. The American government was responsible for the use of these atomic bombs, but company contractors such as Du Pont profited from their development as well. Just as Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi that profited from foreign forced labor should contribute to a trust fund for compensation, so too should American companies that contributed to the Manhattan Project. Only when U.S. and Japanese companies and governments mutually accept responsibility through such compensation will there be an honest acknowledgement of the real costs of the use of the atomic bombs and slave labor.

David Palmer is Senior Lecturer in American Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. Since 2000, his primary focus has been on the history of Japanese workers, especially those in shipbuilding, who experienced World War II and the atomic bombs.
His most recent publications include "The Straits of Dead Souls: One Man's Investigation into the Disappearance of Mitsubishi Hiroshima's Korean Forced Labourers," Japanese Studies, Dec. 2006, and "Korean Hibakusha, Japan's Supreme Court and the International Community: Can the U.S. and Japan Confront Forced Labor and Atomic Bombing?," Japan Focus, Feb. 20, 2008.

Brian Myers will talk about his new book The Cleanest Race: How the North Korean See Themselves and Why it Matters (January 2010).

Myers was born in New Jersey and raised in Bermuda, South Africa, and Germany.  He has a Ph.D. in North Korean Studies from the University of Tubingen, Germany.  His books include Han Sorya and North Korean Literature (1994) and A Reader's Manifesto (2002).

In addition to writing literary criticism for The Atlantic, of which he is a contributing editor, Myers regularly contributes articles on North Korea to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and academic journals. He is a contributor to a book First Drafts of Korea: The U.S. Media and Perceptions of the Last Cold War Frontier (2009) published by The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University.

This seminar is supported by the generous grant from Koret Foundation.

UNICEF immunizes children, provides nutritional supplements and essential medicines, promotes better child care practices, provides access to safe water, promotes hygiene and sanitation practices and improves conditions in schools.  Working with partners, UNICEF has succeeded in pushing the envelope in some areas including access to communities, improving teaching and learning methodologies, starting a process to improve the condition of children in residential institutions and measuring the impact of the work done through surveys and assessments.

The presentation will illustrate some of these initiatives to promote a discussion on the lessons to be drawn for a wider engagement with North Korea through humanitarian interventions in the social sector.

Mr. Balagopal was head of UNICEF’s office in Pyongyang for over three years from September 2006 to November, 2009.  UNICEF has been in North Korea since 1997 and has currently 12 international and 24 seconded national staff working in Pyongyang.