Thursday, Mar 6, 2014 – Telecommunications and Technology in North Korea
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Book Launch: The Two Koreas (Revised & Updated)
The US-Korea Institute at SAIS invites you to join us for the DC book launch for the revised edition of The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History. Korea uber-analyst and author Robert Carlin discusses the re-release of what many consider the foremost book on modern Korea, Don Oberdorfer’s The Two Koreas. Carlin wrote the updated foreward, bringing this arresting publication, loved by university students, business leaders and public alike, to a new generation of readers. Carlin will discuss the changes on the Korean Peninsula since the publication’s initial release, the publication’s continued relevance, and his labor of love saluting Van Fleet awardee and famed journalist Obderdorfer.
Book signing and reception to follow discussion. Copies of the book will be available for purchase from Politics & Prose. This event is free and open to the public.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Bernstein-Offit Building, Room 500
1717 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC
PLEASE RSVP HERE.
The Two Koreas Book Launch
Thursday, Dec 12, 2013 – The Two Koreas Book Launch
Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Public Hearings
The United Nations-mandated Commission of Inquiry (COI) will hold two days of public hearings to investigate the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The hearings will be part of a series of hearings in the United States and United Kingdom in October 2013, aimed at gathering information from witnesses addressing human rights violations alleged to have occurred in the DPRK.
The COI commissioners, Judge Michael Kirby, UN Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman, and Sonja Biserko will conduct public hearings in Washington D.C. on October 30 and 31, facilitated by the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS. The hearings provide an important opportunity for witnesses to share information aimed at raising international awareness about the human rights situation in the DPRK, whose Government has so far declined to grant access into the country to the Commissioners. Those testifying before the UN panel will include individuals with first-hand accounts of conditions in the DPRK.
- Issues to be covered: Human rights and politics, Gender-based violence, Refugees, Prison camp situation, Access to food, Responsibility to protect
- Confirmed experts to testify: Joe Bermudez, Victor Cha, Roberta Cohen, Jared Genser, David Hawk, Andrew Natsios , Marcus Noland
Wednesday, October 30
1:45-6:00PM
Thursday, October 31
8:30AM- 3:45PM
(Registration begins 30 minutes prior to start)
Kenney Auditorium at SAIS
1740 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20036
The hearings are open to the public and on the record.
Please RSVP here.
Press Release: COI Press Release 10.17
For more information about the Commission of Inquiry please visit their website: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIDPRK/Pages/CommissionInquiryonHRinDPRK.aspx
Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Public Hearings
Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 – Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Public Hearings
Things Are Heating Up at Yongbyon
The US-Korea Institute at SAIS’s web-journal on North Korea, 38 North, has reported seeing steam emitting from North Korea’s 5 MWe gas-graphite reactor. This reactor, used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, was shut down in 1994 as part of the US-North Korea Agreed Framework. In 2008, the cooling tower for the reactor was destroyed as part of the 2007 Six Party Agreement. However, after high tensions on the Korean peninsula earlier this year, North Korea announced its intention to restart this reactor.
38 North analysts have been tracking construction at this site through commercial satellite imagery since the North’s announcement. In DigitalGlobe imagery from August 31, 2013, steam was seen coming from the electrical power generating building. See the full analysis at USKI’s 38 North.
The Forgotten War’s POW Saint
“Father Kapaun has been called a shepherd in combat boots…Today we bestow another title on him—recipient of our nation’s highest military decoration.” ~ President Barack Obama at the Medal of Honor ceremony for Father Emil J. Kapaun (April 11, 2013)
On the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, Dennis P. Halpin, former House Foreign Relations Committee staff member and current Visiting Scholar at the US-Korea Institute at SAIS, takes a moment to remember the work of Father Emil J. Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain who was captured during the Korean War and whose ministry to his fellow POWs has been characterized as “saintly.” He also reflects on the estimated 500 POWs believed to remain alive inside North Korea, in violation of the Armistice-linked exchange agreements: Big Switch and Little Switch.
Download USKI Policy Brief “The Forgotten War’s POW Saint” by Dennis P. Halpin.
Dennis P. Halpin is currently a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Korea, U.S. consul in Pusan, and a House Foreign Affairs Committee staff member for over twelve years.
The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University