International Legal Issues for a Unified Korea: Protection of Third Party Rights under Pre-Existing Bilateral Treaties with Angela Kim
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Light lunch will be served
The Elliott School of International Affairs
Chung-Wen Shih Conference Room
Sigur Center for Asian Studies
1957 E St. NW, Suite 503
Washington DC, 20052
RSVP
As of today, based upon the UN Treaty Series, the DPRK has about 50 bilateral treaties with third States and the ROK has over 300 bilateral treaties with third States. If and when a unification of the two Koreas occurs, one of the many international legal questions to be dealt with is the legal status of these pre-existing treaties with third party States. This important question can be answered by examining international law rules on treaty interpretation and state succession.
However, international law of state succession is an area of controversy and uncertainty. This is largely due to the inconsistency of state practice and the attendant uncertainties which occur from a choice among different types of state succession. For example, a unified Korea could occur either by incorporation or merger. However, there is a lack of adequate state practice on succession by unification as in the DPRK and ROK context. The questions which flows from this are: (1) Whether a Unified Korea has liberty to do as it pleases with its pre-existing treaties and (2) how can third States that have bilateral treaty relations with either North or South Korea feel secured and protected regarding their rights under those treaties? This presentation aims to answer these questions by focusing specifically on state practice resulting from unification of States such as Germany. It also examines sources of international law which can protect rights of third States under pre-existing bilateral treaties.
Angela Kim is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Korean Studies. She is a PhD candidate in Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is expected to graduate in August 2020. She received her Master of Laws from the George Washington University Law School in 2015 with a specialization in International and Comparative Law, and her Bachelor of Law from Handong Global University in 2014. She is currently conducting research for her thesis, titled “The Law of State Succession in the Case of Unified Korea: The Legal Effects on Treaties and the Rights of Third States,” with her research interests lying in legal perspectives on Korean studies, and especially those dealing with Korean unification.
The Soh Jaipil Circle is named after the famous champion of Korean independence who earned a medical degree at GW. The Circle will bring together people from the academic and think tank communities for serious and engaged conversations of Korea issues.
