Korean Peninsula Affairs Center presents: Joel Wit - Trump & North Korea: What We Know and Don't Know

Joel Wit, Senior Research Fellow, Columbia University, Weatherhead Institute for East Asian Studies

The Trump administration faces a number of serious foreign policy challenges, with North Korea near the top of the list. Despite media pronouncements to the contrary, rather than a hardline stance towards Pyongyang, President Trump may be searching for a way forward other than immediately escalating sanctions--including against China—or seriously considering military action against the North. The presentation will explore this possibility as well as how events in South Korea, China and North Korea might fit into this effort.

Joel S. Wit is concurrently a Senior Fellow at the US-Korea Institute at SAIS and a Senior Research Fellow at Columbia University Weatherhead Institute for East Asian Studies.

He has served as Senior Advisor to Ambassador Robert L. Galluci from 1993-1995, where he developed strategies to help resolve the crisis over North Korea’s weapons program, and as Coordinator for the US-North Korea Agreed Framework from 1995-1999, where he was the official in charge of implementation. He was also a key participant in the establishment of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO).

Wit has published numerous articles on Northeast Asian security issues. He has also written numerous articles on North Korea and nonproliferation and is the coauthor of the book Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2004). He received his M.I.A. from Columbia University in 1979 and his B.A. from Bucknell University in 1976.

For information on accessibility, or to request accommodation, please contact Oana Zabava at (315) 443-9248 or oazabava@syr.edu.

Sponsored by the Korean Peninsula Affairs Center & The East Asia Program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs