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Abstract

As all of Asia and the "Indo-Pacific" grapple with the challenges of managing China's rise, one country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), does so from a position of unique strength and weakness. On the one hand, North Korea can boast of being the PRC's sole defense treaty ally as well as brotherly communist party controlled state. The two countries share a long border and China has emerged as North Korea's dominant trade and investment partner. Yet these very features create a strategic trap for Pyongyang, which can easily lose autonomy given its hostile relations with the US and its allies and distant ties to more neutralist nations. While most analysis focuses on Kim Jong Un's nuclear capabilities, this lecture will explore North Korea's thinking about how to deal with its hegemonic patron, and what implications their complex bilateral relationship might have on the round of diplomacy about to commence with the new Joe Biden administration and final year of the Moon Jae-in government.

About the Speakers

John Delury is Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS), where he serves as chair of the Program in International Cooperation. He is also chair of the undergraduate Program in International Studies at Yonsei's Underwood International College (UIC), and founding director of the Yonsei Center on Oceania Studies. He is the author, with Orville Schell, of Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century, and is writing a book about US-China relations in the early Cold War. John is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, National Committee on US-China Relations, and National Committee on North Korea; he is also Pacific Century Institute board member, Asia Society senior fellow, National Committee on American Foreign Policy leadership council member, and Center on Strategic and International Studies adjunct fellow. He is a member of the Republic of Ireland's foreign affairs advisory network and is invited to offer his analysis on East Asian affairs with government, think tank, corporate, and civil society organizations globally.

About the Chair

Dr. Sandip Kumar Mishra is Associate Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He is also Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi and Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi. He writes a monthly column 'East Asia Compass' for IPCS and another column in Korea Times. He completed his Master degree in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University and obtained his M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from the same university. He studied Korean Language in Korea in 2006 and 2010 at the Yonsei University and Sogang University. He has been Visiting Fellow and Visiting Scholar at various South Korean universities and research institutes.