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IKS Lecture: The Honorable Jong-kook Lee, "Korea-US Relations and North Korean Nuclear Issues"

Consul General Jong-kook Lee
March 21, 2019
2:20 pm - 3:40 pm
Scott Lab Room E004

The Institute for Korean Studies Presents:

The Honorable Jong-kook Lee
Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Chicago

Title: "Korea-US Relations and North Korean Nuclear Issues"

Flyer: Jong-kook Lee Flyer 

Abstract: Built on our comradeship in the wartime, mutual trust, and shared values, South Korea has been a key ally of the US for over six decades. As the gravity of the ROK-US alliance keeps growing to sustain security on the Korean peninsula, there are still 28,000 US forces in South Korea as a deterrent to any possible North Korean military provocations and thus peace on the Korean peninsula.

Meanwhile the nuclear capabilities of North Korea are near to completion, threatening the security of the US and its allies in East Asia. President Trump has met the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un twice within a year, aiming to denuclearize North Korea through diplomacy. Critics challenge the sincerity of North Korea’s intention to denuclearize based on slow progress and the approach of the US government.

Given the situation, a few questions could be raised regarding the ongoing nuclear negotiations, its ramification on security and the US interest on the Korean peninsula and beyond: Is North Korean denuclearization attainable? What role can South Korea play in the denuclearization process while South Korea tries to improve its ties with North Korea? Would the US-ROK alliance survive after the denuclearization deal?

Bio: Consul General Jong-kook Lee arrived in Chicago in April 2016. Before he was appointed to be the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Chicago, he had served as Ambassador for International Cooperation of Korean Institute for National Unification for a year.

From 2012 to 2015, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Libya. In the past, Consul General Lee served as Minister of Korean Embassy in the Republic of Singapore and the Russian Federation.
Consul General Lee joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981 and his overseas missions include posts such as New Zealand (1989-92), Egypt (1992-96), and the United Kingdom (1996-2000).
Consul General Lee graduated from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea with B.A. in International Relations in 1982 and received his M.A. in International Relations from University of Texas in 1988.
 

Free and open to the public

 

This event is sponsored by the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Consulate General of Korea in Chicago. The Institute for Korean Studies Lecture Series is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.