Asan in the News

2014NOV10

[Joongang Daily] North attempts to shun Seoul as captives freed

  • Issue/Region :
    Foreign Relations/Korean Peninsula
  • Expert :
    Bong Youngshik / Visiting Research Fellow

Yoo Ji-hye, Ser Myo-ja, “North attempts to shun Seoul as captives freed,” Joongang Ilbo (November 10, 2014)

Dr. Bong Youngshik, Senior Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and National Security Center, discusses the release of Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller from North Korea over the weekend.

“The international community has intensified pressure on North Korea over the country’s human rights abuses, as the Republican Party won the U.S. midterm elections and regained control of the Senate. The Kim Jong-un regime probably thought that now is the time to serve its strategic interests.”

About Experts

Bong Youngshik
Bong Youngshik

Visiting Research Fellow

Dr. BONG Youngshik is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Previously, Dr. Bong was an assistant professor in the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. He was also a Freeman Post-doctoral Fellow at Wellesley College and an assistant professor of Korean Studies at Williams College. His research interests include the interplay between nationalism and security issues such as historical and territorial issues in East Asia, anti-Americanism, and the ROK-US Alliance. He is the author of “Past Is Still Present: The San Francisco System and a Multilateral Security Regime in East Asia,” Korea Observer (2010) and co-editor of Japan in Crisis: What It Will Take for Japan to Rise Again? (with T.J. Pempel, The Asan Institute for Policy Studies, 2012). Dr. Bong received his B.A. in political science from Yonsei University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.