A Return to Sunshine on the Korean Peninsula? Winning by Persuasion, Not Bluster - KPAC

A Return to Sunshine on the Korean Peninsula? Winning by Persuasion, Not Bluster

A panel discussion:  

President Donald Trump will pay a state visit to South Korea on November 7, the first such visit there by a U.S. president since President George H. W. Bush’s visit in 1992. The Bush visit virtually coincided with the promulgation of the historic ‘basic agreements’ on North-South reconciliation that included a joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Despite subsequent ups and downs in U.S.-North Korea relations, beginning with the first North Korean nuclear crisis in the mid-1990s, South Korea continued to promote North-South reconciliation based on the spirit of these agreements under the sobriquet of the Sunshine Policy.  

Initially promulgated by South Korea’s President Kim Dae-jung in 1998, the policy was sustained until the end of his successor President Roh Moo-hyun’s administration in 2008. Today, President Moon Jae-in, the current leader of South Korea and bearer of the legacy of the Sunshine Policy, is trying to find a way to deliver on his campaign promise to ‘return to sunshine’ on the Korean Peninsula. The success of his efforts hinges on finding a way to overcome the ‘North Wind’ of Korea’s sad history of being battered by contending world powers due to its strategic geopolitical position in Northeast Asia.  

Please join us for this afternoon panel sponsored by the Moynihan Institute’s Korean Peninsula Affairs Center and the East Asia Program.   

Program and Speaker Bios  

Keynote Address:

The Art of Presidential Persuasion: Resolving the Korean Dilemma

Donald P. Gregg

Gregg is chairman emeritus of both the Pacific Century Institute (PCI) in Los Angeles and The Korea Society in New York City. He had a 43-year career in the United States government culminating in his service as Ambassador to South Korea from 1989 to1993.  

Could Sunshine 2.0 Be Launched by Seoul This Year?

Stephen Costello

Costello (SU 1973-77, BA-1986) is a columnist for The Korea Times in Seoul and director of the AsiaEast.Org policy platform in Washington. He was an advisor to Kim Dae Jung and Korean democrats from 1990 to 1992, and again leading up to the presidential election of 1997. He helped launch the Kim Dae Jung Peace Foundation-USA and served as its vice president from 1993-1997. From 1999 to 2004 Costello directed the Korea program at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC.

New York–Pyongyang Impacts on Peace-Building in Korea

Heng-Gil Han

Heng-Gil Han is the director of the Korea Art Forum (KAF), a New York-based, artist-centered, not-for-profit organization that he established in 2013 to bridge the world through the arts. He will offer a visual presentation based on his experience this summer making photographs together with North Korean artists in Beijing.  

Korean American Community’s Perspective on U.S.-North Korea Relations

Jessica Lee

Jessica Lee is director of Policy and Advocacy of the Council of Korean Americans (CKA). Jessica will share a Korean American community perspective on the escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea. She also will offer insights on how the North Korea issue is playing out in Washington, DC.  

Discussant: Stuart J. Thorson

Stuart Thorson is Donald P. and Margaret Curry Gregg professor emeritus in political science and international relations at The Maxwell School of Syracuse University. He directed Syracuse University’s varied academic exchanges with North Korean partners from 2001 to 2015.

Moderator: Frederick F. Carriere

Frederick F. Carriere is research professor of political science and PCI senior fellow in the Korean Peninsula Affairs Center at Syracuse University. He is a former executive director of the Fulbright Program in Korea. He also served as executive vice president of The Korea Society from 1993 to 2009.  

For more information, contact Havva Karakas-Keles, hkarakas@syr.edu

For information on accessibility, contact Marc Albert, malber01@syr.edu