Emory Report

November 8, 1999

Volume 52, No. 11

Emory to host Jimmy Carter, James Laney, Korean Ambassador Lee for Nov. 11 panel Emory's Halle Institute for Global Learning will present a panel discussion examining "North Korea and Security on the Korean Peninsula" on Nov. 11 from 2-3:30 p.m. in WHSCAB Auditorium, with featured speakers President Jimmy Carter; James Laney, Emory president emeritus and former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea; and Lee Hong-koo, Korean ambassador to the United States and an Emory alumnus. The three internationally known figures will discuss the prospects for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula in view of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, its periodic threats to undertake new missile tests and its disastrous economic situation. The border between North and South Korea is the most heavily armed frontier in the world, with 36,000 American troops engaged with South Korean forces in defending the border and South Korea's democracy. Their discussion will be moderated by Eason Jordan, president of global newsgathering and international networks for CNN News Group. The panelists bring enormous knowledge and insight to the discussion. Carter went to North Korea in 1994 because of a sharp rise in international tensions generated by that country's nuclear activities; he is credited by many with preventing a second Korean War. Laney, a scholar of Korea as well as a policy maker, served as ambassador to Seoul from 1993-97, one of the periods of greatest strain since the end of open hostilities in 1953 (see column, p. 6). He continues to advise the U.S. government on Korean matters. Lee, a graduate of both Oxford and Emory, is former South Korean prime minister and is uniquely qualified to clarify his government' s controversial "Sunshine" policy of rapprochement with Pyongyang and the reaction of Seoul to recent U.S. proposals presented to North Korea by former Secretary of Defense William Perry. Lee had an impressive academic career prior to entering government service. Following his master's and doctoral degrees in political science from Yale University, he spent a year teaching at Emory, a year at Case Western Reserve University and 20 years at Seoul National University (1968-88). He served as minister of national unification (1988), special assistant to the president for political affairs (1990), ambassador to the United Kingdom (1991) and deputy prime minister (1994). His 1994-95 term as prime minister was under the presidency of Kim Young Sam. Until his 1998 appointment as ambassador to the United States, Lee served as chairman of the then-ruling New Korea Party (now the opposition Grand National Party), and is a member of the Korean National Assembly. Co-sponsored by Georgia Tech's Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Agnes Scott College and the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the panel discussion is free and open to the public. For more information, call 404-727-7504. -Deb Hammacher Return to November 8, 1999 contents page