Glyn Ford has been a Labour Member of the European Parliament since 1984. Re-elected in June 2004 for South West England, he is a member of the International Trade Committee and a substitute member of the Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy Committee.

In addition, Mr. Ford is involved in the following all party parliamentary groups: the Globalisation Intergroup as president, the Anti-racism Intergroup as vice-president and the Sports Intergroup.

Glyn Ford is a specialist on East Asia, particularly Japan and North Korea. Since his first election, he has been an active member of the Parliaments Delegation with Relations to Japan, serving as vice chairman for a period of five years. He has extensive experience on North Korea having visited the country nine times and twice as a member of the European Parliament ad-hoc delegations. He was also responsible for two reports on the Korean Energy Development Organisation in the Industry, Research & Energy Committee.

Mr. Ford has also extensive experience in election observation, having participated in missions to South Africa, Kenya, Cambodia. He spent eight months in 2004 as the chief observer EU Election Observation Mission to Indonesia.

From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Ford was the leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) and a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.

Between 1984 and 1986, Glyn Ford was the chair of the Parliaments Committee of Inquiry into the Rise of Racism and Fascism. In 1990, he was the rapporteur for the second Committee of Inquiry into Racism and Xenophobia. From this came his book Fascist Europe . He was the Parliament's representative on the Consultative Committee into Racism and Xenophobia, which was set up in July 1994 by German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Francois Mitterrand. Mr. Ford served as the European Parliament's rapporteur for the report on the setting-up of a European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.

Glyn Ford has been responsible for a number of other reports submitted to the Parliament. In October 1986, he was the rapporteur on the Committee on External Economic Relations, which submitted a report to the Parliament on counter-trade. In 1987, he submitted a report on Star Wars and Eureka, calling for non-participation in the Star Wars programme. This was lost in the Parliament by just two votes. Glyn Ford has also been the rapporteur on two further reports submitted to the Parliament on the Control and Regulation of Lobbyists which was passed with an almost record breaking majority. He was also rapporteur for a report on a Code of Conduct for Lobbyists which was passed in May 1997 and for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) on the Research Committee.

Before becoming a member of the European Parliament Glyn was a local councillor in Tameside and was chair of the Environmental Health and Control Committee and the Education Services Committee.

With a degree in geology from Reading University (1972) and a masters degree in Marine Earth Science from University College London (1974), Glyn Ford worked as a student and then as a staff member in Manchester Universitys Department of Science and Technology Policy, finishing in 1984 as a senior research fellow. In 1983, he spent six months as a visiting professor teaching science and technology policy in the Department of Systems Science at the University of Tokyo.

This seminar is part of the North Korea Seminar Series hosted by the Shorenstein Forum.