In September, Joon-woo Park, a former senior diplomat from Korea, will join the Korean Studies Program (KSP) at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) as the program’s 2011–2012 Koret Fellow.

Park brings over thirty years of foreign policy experience to Stanford, including a deep understanding of the U.S.-Korea relationship, bilateral relations, and major Northeast Asian regional issues. In view of Korea’s increasingly important presence as a global economic and political leader, Park will explore foreign policy strategies for furthering this presence. In addition, he will consider possibilities for increased U.S.-Korea collaboration in their China relations and prospects for East Asian regional integration based on the European Union (EU) model. He will also teach a Center for East Asian Studies course during the winter quarter, entitled Korea's Foreign Policy in Transition.

Park first served overseas in the mid 1980s at the Korean embassy in Washington, DC, during which time he studied at the prestigious Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. He played a critical role in strengthening Korea’s foreign relations over the years, serving in numerous key posts, including that of ambassador to the EU and Singapore, director-general of the Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), and presidential advisor on foreign affairs. Park worked closely for over twenty years with Ban Ki-moon, the former South Korean diplomat who is now the secretary-general of the United Nations.

In 2010, while serving as ambassador to the EU, Park signed the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Brussels. That same year he also completed the Framework Agreement, strengthening EU-South Korea collaboration on significant global issues, such as human rights, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and climate change. Park’s experience with such major bilateral agreements comes as the proposed Korea-U.S. FTA is nearing ratification.

Park worked for seven years at the Korean embassies in Tokyo and Beijing, gaining significant in-the-field expertise with Northeast Asian regional issues. During his tenure as director-general of MOFAT’s Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, he handled sensitive, longstanding issues relating to regional history, such as the depiction of historical events in Japanese textbooks and the treatment of the history of the Goguryeo kingdom in China’s Northeast Project. Such issues of history and memory are among Shorenstein APARC’s current key areas of research.

In addition to his studies at SAIS, Park holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in law, both from Seoul National University. He also served as a Visiting Fellow at Keio University in 1990.

“With South Korea playing an ever larger role not only in East Asia but also globally, we could not be more pleased to have Ambassador Park join us,” says KSP director Gi-Wook Shin. “He is one of his country’s most experienced and capable diplomats, and his presence at Shorenstein APARC will allow us to put a sharper forcus on Korea’s role in world affairs.”

The Koret Fellowship was established in 2008 through the generosity of the Koret Foundation to promote intellectual diversity and breadth in KSP, bringing leading professionals in Asia and the United States to Stanford to study U.S.-Korea relations. The fellows conduct their own research on the bilateral relationship, with an emphasis on contemporary relations, with the broad aim of fostering greater understanding and closer ties between the two countries.

On Friday, April 1, Stanford University hosted twelve North Korean officials making an unprecedented economic tour of the United States. Organized by Professor Susan Shirk of the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, the two-week tour of American businesses and academic institutions was an opportunity for the visitors to see firsthand what improved relations with the United States might mean in terms of economic cooperation.

The North Koreans included senior and mid-level officials responsible for economic, trade, financial and foreign affairs. Their visit took place despite the lack of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the continuing U.S. and UN sanctions against the country for its development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

Welcoming the visitors to a luncheon in Encina Hall, David Straub, associate director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC), briefed them on the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University (FSI) and its research centers, including Shorenstein APARC and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). Straub also introduced representatives from FSI and the School of Medicine who have been involved in policy, academic, and humanitarian engagement projects with the DPRK.

Mr. Henry S. Rowen, co-director of the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE), then outlined the history and organization of Stanford University and its leading role in the development of Silicon Valley. Mr. John Sandelin, senior associate emeritus of the Stanford Office of Technology Licensing, described the university's policies on sharing university-generated intellectual property with the private sector. Following the presentations, American guests at the luncheon, including CISAC's Dr. William J. Perry and Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker, had informal discussions with their North Korean tablemates about the possibilities of, and obstacles to, economic collaboration between the two countries.

The North Koreans' visit to Stanford concluded with a stop at the Hoover Tower observation deck for a panoramic view of the Stanford campus, where they were able to see how Stanford graduates had developed Silicon Valley literally around the campus. DPRK delegation members expressed appreciation for the hospitality they were shown at Stanford and underlined their hopes for economic exchanges with the United States.

The most recent previous visit to Stanford by a DPRK delegation took place in January 2008, when CISAC Professor John W. Lewis, Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin, and the School of Medicine's Dr. Sharon Perry hosted five public health officials for discussions about collaboration on tuberculosis control. Out of that visit evolved Stanford's DPRK Tuberculosis Project, which, in association with the DPRK Ministry of Public Health and NGO partners, is developing the country's first laboratory with the capacity to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis.

On March 26, 2011, Gi-Wook Shin, director of the Stanford Korean Studies Program (Stanford KSP) and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, presented the keynote address "Teaching Korea to Korean American Students" at a gathering of two hundred Korean-language instructors organized by the Korean Schools Association of Northern California (KSANC).

Shin pointed to the connection between language and identity, emphasizing the importance of developing Korean-language skills in children of Korean ethnicity growing up in the United States. He noted the dual significance of having a strong, well-rounded Korean American identity: one rooted in a solid understanding of Korean language, culture, and history, with also a firm sense of being American.

KSANC is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing Korean-language instruction and programming about Korean culture and history to children and adults. Through its outreach activities, Stanford KSP helps to support the mission of KSANC and numerous other non-profit education organizations throughout Northern California.