From the threat of war, to historic inter-Korean and US-North Korea summits, to the current stalemate, the prospects for reconciliation and peace have suffered multiple ups and downs in recent years.

The election this year of Republic of Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol may yet signal a new chapter in relations between Seoul and Pyongyang but overtures made so far have been rebuffed by Kim Jong-un and the status-quo persists.

Meanwhile, the UK, US and other European countries find themselves occupied with the war in Ukraine, Russian aggression and cost-of-living crises borne out of the post-Covid reopening. Seoul and its European counterparts are also seeking ways to navigate Sino-American competition, torn between their ideas and close links with the US on the one hand and their goal to prevent a new Cold War – or worse - on the other.

Against this backdrop, the 2022 Korea Peace Forum will involve leading academics and practitioners discussing the political and security situation in the Korean Peninsula; their experiences in dealing with North Korea; and potential ways to find common ground in the Indo-Pacific region.

For all external attendees: If you are not a member of staff or student at King's College London, please ensure you have signed up for the forum *at least* 48 hours in advance. This is to ensure you can gain access to Bush House on the day.

The event

King’s College London will again act as host for the 2022 forum, following the success of last year’s event. Supporting King’s will be the Embassy of the Republic of Korea.

The forum will feature two panel discussions: 'The Yoon Administration's Inter-Korean Policy', and 'North Korea's nuclear programme: Doctrine, technological development and proliferation'.

Reinhold Brender, former head of the Korea division at the European External Action Service; Tat Yan Kong, Reader (Associate Professor) in Comparative Politics at SOAS; and Sophie Larder NATO staff officer for global partnerships, will be joined on the first panel by a delegate from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea.

Joseph Dempsey, research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies; Kim Saeme, a former visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute; Dr John Nilsson-Wright, Korea Foundation Korea Fellow and Senior Fellow for Northeast Asia, Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House; and Nicola Leveringhaus, senior lecturer in East Asian Security and International Relations at King’s, will feature in the second panel.

The forum is taking place from 09.30 (GMT) on 15 November in the Great Hall at King’s College London. A live stream will also be available for those unable to attend in person, via YouTube. A reception event for guests will be held from 12.30 also at King’s.

You can watch last year’s forum on YouTube here.

Schedule

09.30-09.45 Welcome remarks

HE Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in the United Kingdom Yoon Yeocheol

Dr Vinicius Carvalho - Vice Dean (International) at the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy 

09.45-11.00 The Yoon Administration's Inter-Korean Policy

Moderator: Dr Tat Yan Kong (SOAS)

Speakers:

Dr Reinhold Brender (European External Action Service, retired)

Sophie Larder (NATO)

Counsellor Hyungchul Park (ROK Embassy to the UK)

11.00-11.15 Coffee break

11.15-12.30: North Korea's nuclear programme: Doctrine, technological development and proliferation

Moderator: Dr Kim Saeme (formerly RUSI)

Speakers:

Joseph Dempsey (IISS)

Dr Nicola Leveringhaus (King's College London)

Dr John Nilsson-Wright (Cambridge University & Chatham House)

12.30-13.30 Reception

 

Confirmed speakers

Hyung Chul (Kevin) Park is the Political Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the UK. He is a career diplomat and served previously as: Assistant Secretary to the President, Director of the Inter-Korean Policy Division, advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Deputy Director of the North Korean Nuclear Affairs T/F, among others.

Dr Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho joined King’s in 2014 and before he was Associate Professor for Brazilian Studies at Aarhus University (2008-2014), Denmark, where he was also Director of the Latin American Centre (2012-2014). Vinicius was a Lieutenant in the Brazilian Army (2007-2008), serving in the Military Technical Corps. At King’s, Dr Carvalho is Vice Dean (International) for the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy, and between 2020 and 2022, he was director of King’s Brazil Institute. At the War Studies Department, he is the Convener of the MA in Strategic Communications and teaches UG modules on Latin America issues.

Dr Nicola Leveringhaus (DPhil, Oxon) is a Senior Lecturer in East Asian Security and International Relations at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Dr Leveringhaus specialises in nuclear weapons issues in Northeast Asia, especially China. Her second book China and Global Nuclear Order, from Estrangement to Active Engagement was nominated for the 2017 ECPR Hedley Bull Prize.

Dr Tat Yan Kong is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Comparative Politics at SOAS, University of London. He has written extensively on the politics and political economy of both Koreas. His most recent articles were published in the Journal of Contemporary Asia (2022), Modern Asian Studies (2020) and Pacific Review (2019). He is currently writing an article about security and social inequality in 21st century Taiwan.

Dr Kim Saeme was a visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the United Kingdom (2021-2022). Her research focuses on East Asian regionalism, security on the Korean Peninsula, and middle power diplomacy. Prior to joining RUSI, Saeme was a resident fellow at Pacific Forum International in Honolulu and a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) in Seoul. She received her PhD in International Relations from King’s College London (KCL) in 2022.

Dr Reinhold Brender, as an EU official until the summer of 2022, led for five years the European External Action Service team in charge of EU relations with North and South Korea. He commands broad experience in and knowledge of EU external action, having worked also on the Balkans, transatlantic relations and the countries of the European neighbourhood (east and south). He holds MA and PhD degrees from Freiburg University/Germany.

Joseph Dempsey is a London-based defence analyst with 15 years of professional intelligence analysis experience. A contributor to The Military Balance and other IISS research, he specialises in open-source and imagery analysis of military capabilities. He has a research interest in North Korea’s military developments, particularly tracking the evolution of their ballistic missile programmes. Joseph holds a Master’s degree in Defence and Security Analysis from Lancaster University.

Dr John Nilsson-Wright (formerly Swenson-Wright) is senior university lecturer at Cambridge University and an official fellow at Darwin College; he also is concurrently senior research fellow for Northeast Asia and Korea Foundation Korea Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. He was head of the Chatham House Asia Programme from March 2014 to October 2016 and is a graduate of Christ Church and St. Antony’s College, Oxford and SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on Cold War history focusing on US-Japan alliance ties, and the contemporary international relations and politics of Northeast Asia, with reference to Japan and the Koreas. In his policy work, he focuses on regional security and the changing nature of alliance relations in East Asia, and at Chatham House he coordinates a project on Korea’s regional and global role, having recently completed a similar study on UK-Japan relations. He is currently writing a monograph on populism and identity politics as a contemporary and historical phenomenon in both Europe and Northeast Asia.

Sophie Larder has worked in NATO’s Political Affairs and Security Policy Division since 2011. As an officer in the Global Partnerships section, Sophie currently works on NATO’s relations with Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Mongolia, as well as on relations with Asia-Pacific partners more broadly. Between 2011 and 2020, Sophie worked on NATO’s relations with Russia, and on NATO’s partnership with Ukraine. Before coming to NATO, Sophie worked on the deployment of UK observers on OSCE Election Observation Missions, and in the private sector for a London-based public affairs consultancy. She has a master’s degree in International Relations from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and a bachelor’s degree in Russian Language and History from the University of Durham.