Ye Seon Cheon
August 15, 2023 – August 15, 2024
Ye Seon Cheon is a journalist with 17 years of experience at The Herald Business, a prominent economic newspaper in South Korea. She has primarily covered topics in business, industry, finance, and international issues.
Specializing in the Korean economy, Ye Seon is currently studying the impact of U.S. government industrial policy on the South Korean economy at the George Washington University. Specifically, she has conducted research on the influence of the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on the business operations of major South Korean firms and their potential future changes.
Ye Seon holds a master’s degree in international relations. She is particularly interested in economic security and its intersection with international relations. Relations between the ROK-U.S., ROK-China, and ROK-Europe form the core of her studies.
Go Woon Choi
September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2024
Go Woon Choi has worked as a News reporter for SBS since 2007. She mainly covered Korean conservative political party called ‘People Power Party’. She has written articles on changing power structures, especially in Korean general elections and presidential elections.
Go Woon has consistently written articles exposing collusion between public power and entertainment circles, or accusing political power corruption. For this, she was awarded prizes not only in Korea but also from abroad.
Go Woon’s major interest as a journalist is the issue of political polarization in Korea. Both conservative and liberal parties are taking political extremes to win. This behavior is causing political hatred beyond distrust of politicians. She will study ways to integrate society through politics.
Sung Soo Hong
January 1, 2023 – January 1, 2024
Sung Soo Hong is a professor at Sookmyung Women’s University. His main areas of research are jurisprudence, socio-legal studies, and human rights law, and he has recently studied the issues of human rights, discrimination, hate speech, and hate crimes. He has focused on the role of law in these areas. His recent Korean publications include Reason in Law: Understanding Law with Films (2019), Human Rights Systems and Institutions (with Kim and Park, 2018), and When Words Hurt: What is Hate Speech (2018), which has been translated into Japanese (『ヘイトをとめるレッスン』). His most recent English publication is “Discovering diversity: the anti-discrimination legislation movement in South Korea”(co-author with Jihye Kim), in Rights Claiming in South Korea (2021).
In 2008, he received a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics (LSE) for research on national human rights institutions and was a visiting researcher at the Human Rights Consortium University of London, the Center for Socio-Legal Studies University of Oxford, and the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Spain). He has served on various advisory boards of public authorities in Korea, including the Ministry of Justice, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of National Defense, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Korea Communications Standards Commission, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. He has also served as a commissioner or advisor to human rights NGOs in Korea such as the Rainbow Foundation, the Catholic Human Rights Commission, the Korea Human Rights Foundation, and the Center for Military Human Rights.
Youngkee Ju
December 1, 2023 – August 31, 2024
Youngkee Ju is a professor at the Media School, Hallym University. As a former reporter with Kukmin-Ilbo and Korea Daily in San Francisco, his research interest lies in investigating how news media represent health risk, what are the dynamics of journalism behaviors, and how they affect public risk perception. Outrage factors as an element of risk perception dynamics are other examples of research interest, the outcomes of which have been published in various academic journal such as Science Communication, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Risk Analysis, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and others.
As the former Dean of Media School at Hallym University (2018~2022), he worked on establishing a media education program characterized by “learning by doing.” In doing so, he established a system in which Media School students’ news reports are released in actual media outlets, such as OhmyNews, Side View, and Chuncheon People. For academic journals, he served as the Editor-in-chief of Health Communication Research and worked for the journal to be indexed in the KCI (Korea Citation Index). He is currently working as the associate editor for Health and New Media Research(https://www.hnmr.org/index.php). During the COVID-19 outbreak, he served as a member of communication advisory group for Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Byeongcheol Kang
August 28, 2023 – August 27, 2024
Byeongcheol Kang is a Korean journalist. The Seoul shinmun daily, which he works, is founded in 1904 and regarded as a one of the oldest newspaper in Korea. He Studied Korean literature and Religious studies for his B.A. at Seoul National University. He received a master’s degree of Korean Literature at Seoul National University. He has mainly written articles on politics, international relations, inter-Korean relation, and legal issues. His recent position was head of the legal news team.
Byeongcheol has been interested in Korea-US-Japan relations. Byeongcheol plans to study on the impact of the US-Japan Alliance on trilateral relationship. In particular, his focus is on the perspectives of the US government, think tank and media about Japan’s rearmament reform and effect to Northeast Asian situation. He is also interested in various issues in journalism. He has written three books about news language, the fake news, and media literacy.
Youngjun Kim
January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023
Youngjun Kim is a Professor of National Security College of the Korea National Defense University. He has been a member of National Security Advisory Board of the Republic of Korea President’s Office, Central Committee of the Presidential Peaceful Unification Advisory Board, the ROK-US Combined Command Forces’ Strategic Shaping Board, Performance Review Committee at the Prime Minister’s Office, an international senior research fellow of the Foreign Military Studies Office of the U.S. Army and a policy advisor for Ministry of National Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Intelligence Office, the Joint Chief of Staff, the U.S. Senate and Congress, the State Department, the Pentagon and Intelligence Agencies.
He leads the ROK-US nuclear expert network, Nuclear Policy Leadership Initiative, and a managing editor of the Korean Journal on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Energy sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has been appeared in a global media, including BBC TV news, Fox News TV, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CBS News TV, the Guardian, Al Zazeera News TV, WION TV News of India, Kyoto Tongshin of Japan, KBS, MBC, Younhap News TV, Defense TV and Arirang TV news and a regular columnist for Joongang Daily Newspaper and Segye Daily Newspaper.
He published a book titled “Origins of the North Korean Garrison State: the People’s Army and the Korean War” at Routledge, “Why negotiating Nuclear Arms Control with North Korea: Why and How?” with Toby Dalton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and others. Sponsored by the ROK and the US government, he has mainly organized numerous conferences and joint research project on the Korean Peninsula Security with think tanks and universities in the U.S., including the GWU, SAIS, CEIP, the Wilson Center, CSIS, IISS, NBR, the Hudson Institute, the Mansfield Foundation, NDU, the U.S. Army War College, the USIP, ISDP, NCAFP, CNAP, the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation, the RAND Corporation and others, in Washington DC and Seoul.
Hyeong-won Kim
September 1, 2023 – September 1, 2024
Hyeong-won Kim is a journalist for Chosun Ilbo, the largest media company in South Korea. After receiving a B.A. in Public Administration, he joined Chosun Ilbo in 2009. He has worked in the police, social policy, and political departments. In 2014, he received a scholarship to participate in a training program at University of California-Berkeley. He also has worked as a Southeast Asia correspondent in 2015 and 2016. During this period, he covered various issues including Myanmar’s first free general election, the death of Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, and featured stories on Japanese comfort women in Southeast Asia.
Since 2019 he has been reporting on both the ruling and opposition political parties in South Korea. He has a deep interest in the recent new media campaigns in elections in Korea and the United States. He has covered South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol’s use of the AI avatar “Wiki-Yoon ” during his presidential campaign and political disputes regarding deepfakes in the 2020 US presidential election. As a visiting scholar, he plans to analyze new media campaigns and study legislative activities in South Korea and the United States.
So Yoon Kwak
September 1, 2022 – August 31, 2024
So Yoon Kwak is a research fellow at Korea Environment Institute, which is a government-sponsored research institution. The institute is responsible for environmental policy research and contributes to preventing and solving environmental problems.
She conducted several studies about public attitudes toward the environment and environmental valuation, especially focusing on chemicals and its impacts on human health. She is interested in analyzing key factors that determine people’s behavior towards the environment and comparing them with other countries.
Her research project will be about researching and analyzing microeconomic data on people’s choices related to the environment and deriving meaningful results therefrom. Examining policies instituted by the U.S. federal and state government will be also a part of her research.
Hyerin Kwon
August 24, 2023 – July 31, 2024
Hyerin Kwon serves as the Director General within the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). With a career spanning 24 years in the Government of Korea, she has taken a diverse array of sectors, including interdepartmental policy coordination and regulatory reform in the OPM, and also assumed lead roles at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Office of the President, a provincial government, and Yuhan-Kimberly. She managed 32 Regulation-Free Zones for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2021. In 2019, she initiated the policy for collaboration between civil society and the public sector. Additionally, in 2018, she strategically formulated the Presidential agendas.
Hyerin’s academic background includes the study of political science at Ehwa Woman’s University, and she holds dual master’s degrees in public policy from both Georgetown University and Seoul National University. In her upcoming research at GWIKS, she will delve into exploring how Korean Official Development Assistance (ODA) can assume a more pivotal role and amplify its influence on the global stage. This will involve sharing Korea’s distinctive developmental experiences using effective methodologies as a contributing donor country.
Kyungmi Lee
September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2024
Kyungmi Lee is a journalist at Hankyoreh, Korea’s leading daily newspaper company. Since she joined Hankyoreh in 2008, she has covered a variety of areas such as social matters, politics, and economic policies.
In recent years, Kyungmi has written articles about the economic situation in South Korea, including household debt, inflation and interest rate hikes. She was a team leader of the weekly magazine department and wrote a long story that dives deep into economic issues.
Kyungmi is interested in the global economy. Her research focuses on the impact of U.S. monetary policy on the world, and South Korea’s policy mix in response. She will be studying how the international community is working together to address the current economic crisis by contacting a variety of areas, including universities, research institutes, and international organizations in Washington DC.
Seungduck Lee
August 15, 2023 – August 14, 2024
Seungduck is an associate professor at the Department of Economics at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. He worked at the Bank of Korea before joining Sungkyunkwan University in 2017. Additionally, he has been a member of the Korean Journal of Economic Studies editorial board since 2019.
In 2017, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis. His research generally focuses on Monetary Policy, Digital Currency, Macroeconomics, and Financial Markets. His recent research interest lies in the macroeconomic effects of digital currencies, such as Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), cryptocurrencies, and digital payment methods.
Relatedly, the recent publications include “Central Bank Digital Currency, Tax Evasion, and Inflation Tax” with O. Kwon and J. Park at Economic Inquiry (2022), “Money, Bitcoin, and Monetary Policy” with K. Kang at Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking (2022), and “Money, Asset Prices and the Liquidity Premium” at Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking (2020).
Woosun Lim
August 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024
Woosun Lim is an experienced journalist with a 17-year tenure at Donga Ilbo, a prominent Korean media outlet established for over a century. Having joined in 2006, she covered social matters, business, and education. In 2020, she became the Chief of Donga’s 100th Anniversary Special Contents team, known as the Hero Contents Team for crafting exceptionally prestigious content. In 2021, she transitioned to the role of Corporate Management Team Manager at Donga Media Group’s Corporate Strategy Office.
Woosun is recognized for her commitment to quality journalism and has received awards such as the Presidential Commendation Award, Kwanhun Press Award, Korean Digital Journalism Award, and Ewha Journalist of the Year Award. With a focus on the digital transformation of legacy media, she employs multimedia storytelling to deeply examine society. Woosun now plans to research policies addressing educational disparities among different socioeconomic strata. Additionally, she will explore innovative curricula and technologies aimed at equipping the youth with the tools needed to navigate future transformations.
Woosun holds a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Diplomacy, as well as French Literature, from Ewha Women’s University.
Jisoo Lim
January 1, 2023 – December 21, 2023
Jisoo Lim is a prosecutor in Korea. He majored in law at Ajou University, and has worked as a prosecutor since passing the bar exam in 2010. He is currently working at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.
During his 13-year career as a prosecutor, he has investigated various cases such as corporate crime, tax, intellectual property, and economic crimes. He recently won a conviction in a breach of trust case where a company drove work to the owner’s children’s company in anticipation of huge profits. As there is no plea bargain system in Korea, he plans to study the plea bargain system of the U.S. He will study the practical application of the system and the necessity of introducing it in Korea.
Seongkwang Seo
August 1, 2023 – July 31, 2024
Seongkwang Seo is a prosecutor of South Korea. After passing the bar exam in 2009 and training at the Judicial Training Institute for two years, he joined the prosecutor’s office in 2011. He has worked for 13 years in various district prosecutors’ offices, and is currently working at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office.
He has experience in investigating various crimes, including public security cases (election crimes, illegal political fund crimes, etc), corporate crime cases, bribery cases, sexual crimes, and economic crimes. He is also experienced in maintaining the prosecution of the various cases mentioned above at trial. In particular, he specializes in election crimes and political fund crimes in the field of public security investigation, and has been working in the public security investigation department for many years.
In recognition of his contributions as a prosecutor, he was awarded the Minister of Justice’s Commendation for Public Security Affairs in 2017. He also received the Prosecutor General’s Award for Exemplary Prosecutor in the second half of 2019 and the Prime Minister’s Commendation for Prosecutorial Affairs in 2021.
Based on his experience as a prosecutor, he is going to research the latest U.S. cases and scholarship on the admissibility of evidence for electronic file documents created on computer or other electronic devices, a topic that has become increasingly important in recent years.
Hanbyeol Sohn
September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2024
Hanbyeol Sohn is an associate professor in the Department of Military Strategy at the Korea National Defense University (KNDU). Prior to joining the GWIKS, Hanbyeol was a Director, Centre for Military Strategy in Research Institute for National Security Affairs (RINSA), where he carried out research and writing on ROK-US alliance, U.S. extended nuclear deterrence, and military planning for the ROK Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Unification, National Intelligence Service, and Joint Chief of Staff.
From 2002, Hanbyeol held both ROK Army commander and staff positions in the field and served as an acting officer in Strategic Planning Division (J5), ROK Joint Chief of Staff. He also conducted research for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He holds a BA in German Language Education and an MA in Political Science from Seoul National University, and a PhD in Military Studies from KNDU.
Dong-Gu Suh
January 28, 2023 – January 27, 2024
Dong-Gu Suh is a former diplomat and previously served as the Ambassador to the State of Israel from 2019-2022 and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 2016-2017. Between his two ambassadorial terms, he served as the First Deputy Director of National Intelligence Service. Throughout his career, he pursued academic positions as a visiting professor and fellow at Pukyong National University and Korea Institute for National Unification(a government-funded think tank) respectively. He earned a Master’s degree in political science from George Washington University and holds a doctorate degree from Kyungnam University.
Based on his experience, his research at GWIKS will focus on the analysis of the continued nuclearization of North Korea and the deepening strategic competition between US and China in terms of security implications for Seoul.
