This will be a one day seminar on the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) or North Korea with invited speakers from Denmark, Sweden, and the UK. The theme will be how we can understand North Korea – which is to this day a misunderstood part of the world. The focus will be on policy making, North Korea’s international relations, history and culture. The aim will be to discuss how North Korea sees itself, how South Koreans see North Korea, and how the outside world should deal with the country. Speakers invited are all acknowledged experts in their field. Dr Hazel Smith has researched North Korea for many years and lived and worked in the country. She is the author of North Korea: Markets and Military Rule which challenges conventional impressions of the DPRK. Dr James Hoare worked for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Research Analysts and was posted to Seoul, South Korea, Beijing, China, and was also the first British representative to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2001-2. Dr Sonja Häussler. In addition, Ambassador Young-sam Ma has lectured widely on the question of the human rights situation in North Korea. Sonia Häussler, now professor of Korean Studies in Stockholm is originally from East Germany, received her training in Korean Studies from the University of Leningrad, and spent a number of years living in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang in the late 1980s. The day will end with a round table discussion that will allow members of the public and students ask questions about North Korea in greater detail.
List of speakers and titles of talks:
Flemming Splidsboel Hansen
DIIS (Danish Institute for International Studies)
‘Current Russian and DPRK relations’
Camilla T. N. Sørensen
Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen
‘Making sense of PRC-DPRK relations in a changing East Asian security context’
Andrew David Jackson
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
‘Prospects for Violent insurrection in the DPRK: Victor Cha and Theoretical Approaches’
Hazel Smith
University of Central Lancashire, UK
‘North Korea: Markets and Military Rule’
Ambassador Young Sam Ma
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea
‘Missiles, Nuclear Weapons and Regional Security’
James Hoare
SOAS/Chatham House
‘Why engage North Korea?’
Sonja Häussler
University of Stockholm, Sweden
‘North Korea and the World festival of youth and students in 1989’
