About the Speaker

Jennifer Pan is a political scientist whose research focuses on political communication, digital media, and authoritarian politics. She is the Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor of Chinese Studies, Professor of Communication and (by courtesy) Political Science, and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute. Pan's research uses experimental and computational methods with large-scale datasets on political activity to answer questions about the role of digital media in authoritarian and democratic politics, including how political censorship, propaganda, and information manipulation work in the digital age and how preferences and behaviors are shaped as a result. Her papers have appeared in peer reviewed publications such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Communication, and Science. She graduated from Princeton University, summa cum laude, and received her Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Department of Government.

Parking & Directions

Parking meters are enforced Monday - Friday 8 AM to 4 PM, unless otherwise posted.

The event will take place in the Koret-Taube Conference Center located within the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Building. The closest visitor parking to the Gunn-SIEPR building is:

• Galvez Lot, located across from the Stadium lot
• Track House Visitor Lot at the corner of Galvez Street and Campus Drive
• Knight Management Parking structure on Campus Drive East (this is an underground option)

Please visit this website for more detailed parking options and directions to the venue.

Questions? Contact Ragina Johnson at raginaj@stanford.edu

This talk will discuss the historical and contemporary foreign policy objectives and dynamics of the North Korean government.

Benjamin R. Young will examine the foreign policy shifts undertaken by North Korea under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un. He will explore how the Kim family regime has pivoted away from its previous emphasis on solidarity with "small countries" and the Third World, instead reasserting North Korea's focus on building stronger ties with the "big countries," particularly Russia. Young will analyze the motivations behind this strategic reorientation, the implications for North Korea's regional and global positioning, and the broader geopolitical dynamics that have shaped this foreign policy transformation under Kim Jong Un’s rule.

Yong Suk Lee will examine the key foreign policy lessons learned by North Korea over the past three decades, from the four-party talks in the late 1990s to the Hanoi Summit in 2019 and beyond. Drawing on his observations and analyses from his senior leadership position within the CIA, Lee will provide insights into the evolution of US-North Korea relations, North Korea’s engagement with China, and the dynamics of the inter-Korean relationship. By reflecting on North Korea's diplomatic maneuvers, Lee will offer a nuanced understanding of the driving forces and strategic calculations behind Pyongyang's foreign policy decision-making during this pivotal period.

Ria Roy, a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, will lead the discussion.

SPEAKERS:

Mr. Yong Suk Lee is the Director of Global Risk Analysis for Google’s Global Security & Resilience Services. Mr. Lee leads analytic teams based in Boulder, Dubai, London, New Delhi, New York, São Paulo, Singapore, Washington DC, and Zurich. He is currently a Visiting Scholar, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Senior Fellow for Asia, Foreign Policy Research Institute; and a Fellow, National Security Institute, George Mason University. Before joining Google, Mr. Lee served for 22 years in various senior leadership positions with the Central Intelligence Agency as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service. His key assignments included service as the Deputy Assistant Director of CIA for the Korea Mission Center, Chief of Korea Department, and as a Briefer on the President’s Daily Briefing staff. Mr. Lee joined the CIA in 1997 as a North Korea analyst. He has a BA from the University of Colorado and an MA from Ohio University.

Benjamin R. Young is currently an assistant professor of homeland security and emergency preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University. In August 2024, he will be a Stanton Foundation Nuclear Security Fellow at the RAND Corporation. He is the author of the book, Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World (Stanford University Press, 2021). Previously, he taught at Dakota State University and the U.S Naval War College. He has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles on various aspects of North Korean history, international security, and U.S-Asia relations. He was a 2018-2019 CSIS/USC NextGen US-Korea Scholar and has also written journalistic pieces for The Washington Post, The Diplomat, Nikkei Asia, The National Interest, and NKNews.org. 
 

DISCUSSANT: Ria Roy, a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, is a specialist in the history of modern Korea and East Asia. Her doctoral dissertation, which she is currently turning into a book, examines the intellectual and cultural history of North Korea in the context of the Japanese Empire’s legacy as well as the influence of the revolutionary bloc. In particular, she explores the history and development of the leadership succession in North Korea, focusing on the role of intellectuals and their ideas in the generation of the unique North Korean model of leadership. More broadly, she is interested in the intellectual interplay between East and West and how it paved the way for a transition to an illiberal modernity. Roy received her PhD from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She previously received her MA from Harvard University and her BA from Waseda University in Japan.

All media representatives interested in covering the event or accessing the event site should contact aparc-communications@stanford.edu by 5 PM Pacific Time, Monday, May 6.

Directions and Parking>