Conference Theme

North Korea’s recent spate of nuclear tests coupled with rising tensions between the Kim regime and the Trump administration has raised the specter of nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula and beyond. This high-level conference, featuring leading experts and policy-makers, explores the different dimensions of this evolving crisis and potential strategies to address it.

Conference Agenda

Registration (8:30am – 9:00am)

Coffee and Light Breakfast Served

Welcome (9:00am – 9:05am)

• Mayo Moran, Professor of Law, University of Toronto and Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College, University of Toronto

Opening Remarks (9:05am – 9:15am)

• Hon. William C. Graham, Founder of Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History and Board Chair of the Canadian International Council

Opening Address (9:15am – 10:00am)
“Canada’s Role and the Vancouver Foreign Minister’s Meeting on Korea”

• Ian Shugart, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs,  Global Affairs Canada

Coffee (10:00am – 10:15am)

Panel 1: The Nature of the North Korean Threat (10:15am – 12:00pm)

Panelists:

• Charles K. Armstrong, The Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences, Columbia University
• Andre Schmid, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of East Asia Studies, University of Toronto
• Jenny Town, Assistant Director of the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
• Adam Mount, Senior Fellow & Director, Defense Posture Project, Federation of American Scientists

Moderator: Don Rickerd, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

Lunch (12:00pm – 1:00pm)

Panel Two: US-Korea Relations (1:00pm – 2:45pm)

Panelists:

• Scott A. Snyder, Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
• George A. Lopez, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies, Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame
• Lt. General (R) In-Bum Chun, Republic of Korea Armed Forces
• Kyung-Ae Park, The Korea Foundation Chair, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Colombia; and Director, Canada-DPRK Knowledge Partnership Program

Moderator: Jack Cunningham, Interim Director, Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History

Coffee (2:45pm – 3:00pm)

Panel Three: Future Prospects (3:00pm – 4:45pm)

Panelists:

• Andrea Berger, Senior Research Associate and Senior Program Manager at the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies and Senior Fellow at the Canadian International Council
• James Fergusson, Deputy Director or the Centre for Defence and Security Studies, University of Manitoba
• Patrick McEachern, International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Centre

Moderator: Mark Sedra, President, Canadian International Council

Closing Remarks (4:45pm – 5:00pm)

• Stephen Wallace, Distinguished Fellow, Canadian International Council

Organizers & Sponsors

Sponsors:
Global Affairs Canada

Organizers:
The Canadian International Council
The Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History

Speaker Bios

Charles K. Armstrong is The Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences in the Department of History at Columbia University. Professor Armstrong’s teaching and research interests include modern Korean history, East Asian international history, US-East Asian relations and world history. He is the author, editor or co-editor of several books, including The Koreas; Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950 – 1992; Korea at the Center: Dynamics of Regionalism in Northeast Asia; Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy and the State; and The North Korean Revolution, 1945 – 1950. His current research and publication projects include a history of modern East Asia (forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell), American cultural policy in East Asia during the Cold War, and the interaction between urbanization and the environment in North Korea and Northeast China.

Andrea Berger is a London-based Senior Research Associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), specializing in nuclear weapons policy, sanctions and proliferation finance, and Northeast Asian security issues. As part of her work, Andrea conducts detailed investigations into illicit networks using open-source intelligence techniques, in support of counterproliferation efforts. She is a co-host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast, a Senior Fellow at the Canadian International Council, and a Visiting Fellow at King’s College London. Prior to joining MIIS, Andrea was the Deputy Director of the nuclear policy team at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the UK’s leading defence and security think-tank. She also directed the UK Project on Nuclear Issues, a network of over 1000 nuclear professionals in the UK. Between 2012 and 2015, Andrea led track one-and-a-half security talks with the North Korean People’s Army and Worker’s Party, both in Pyongyang and London. She has worked extensively with the Financial Action Task Force and its regional bodies, as well as with financial institutions, to develop their approaches to countering proliferation finance. Andrea has been a delegate to the Proliferation Security Initiative’s Operational Experts Group, as well as a UK representative at the 2014 and 2016 P5 Conferences. Before joining the nonproliferation community, Andrea worked in several Canadian government departments, lastly as a Trade Policy Analyst in Global Affairs Canada.

Lt. General In-Bum Chun (retired) was born on 6 September 1958. Spending his early years in Seoul he moved to the United States at the age of 7, following his mother who was the first woman diplomat for the Republic of Korea (ROK). LTG(R) Chun spent four and a half years in New York City and returned to Korea in 1969. He was accepted to the Korea Military Academy (KMA) in 1977. LTG(R) Chun was selected to become the aide to LTG Lee, Ki-Baek who was then the 1st ROK Corps Commander. LTG(R) Chun became the youngest officer in ROK Army history to be an aide to a three star general with the rank of lieutenant. In 1983 General Lee, as Chairman of the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff, was a victim of the Rangoon bombing. LTG(R) Chun was credited with saving General Lee’s life and was awarded the National Security Medal (Kwang-Bok). Upon completion of Regimental command, LTG(R) Chun was assigned as the Chief of the Election Support Branch, Civil Military Affairs /Strategic Operations Directorate at the Multi National Forces (MNF) in Iraq. He was recognized by both the Republic of Korea and the United States for his contribution to the first “Fair and Free” elections in Iraq on 30 January 2005, with the Hwa-Rang Combat medal and the US Bronze Star medal. From November of 2005, LTG(R) Chun served as the Director of US Affairs at the Korean Ministry of National Defense and was involved in negotiations and cooperation with the US on relocations of US forces, Camp returns, ROK/US Joint Vision Study, Special Measures Agreement and transition of Wartime Operational Control. On 19 July 2007, 23 Korean missionary workers, including 16 women, were kidnapped by the Taliban. LTG(R) Chun was given seven hours’ notice to assemble a team and deploy to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) HQ in Kabul, Afghanistan and establish coordinating relations with ISAF and also to support the ROKG efforts for the release of the hostages. The incident lasted for forty four days and all but two were released unharmed. LTG(R) Chun was credited with accomplishing his mission successfully and was awarded the Korean Presidential citation. Upon completion of his duties as the Deputy-director for Strategic Planning at ROK JCS, LTG(R) Chun took over the OPCON Transition Group, which was charged with the responsibility of overseeing the transformation of wartime operational control from the US to the ROK. During his post he supervised establishment of the Initial Operational Capability of the ROK JCS and subordinate operational commands. LTG(R) Chun was promoted to two stars on 3 Nov of 2009 and took over command of the 27th Infantry Division. In Nov of 2013, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and was assigned as the commander of the ROK Special Warfare Command. From April of 2015, he was the Deputy Commander for the First ROK Army. LTG(R) Chun retired from active duty as of 31 July 2016. After reirement he conducted concurrent fellowships with Brookings Institute and the US-Korea Institute, School of Advances International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC until October 2017.

Jack Cunningham has a BA in English and an MA in History from the University of Calgary and a PhD in History from the University of Toronto. His dissertation dealt with Anglo-American nuclear relations in the late 1950s and early ’60s, and his research interests include American, British, and Canadian foreign policy and international relations, particularly for the Cold War period. He has been Program Coordinator of the Graham Centre since 2011 and is currently the Centre’s Interim Director. His publications include coedited volumes on the conflict in Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He is also coeditor of International Journal, Canada’s leading journal of international affairs.

Dr. James Fergusson is a Professor in the Department of Political Studies and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Defence and Security Studies. He teaches a range of courses in the fields of international relations, strategic studies, Canada-US defence relations, and Canadian Foreign and Defence Policy. His recent publications include Beyond Afghanistan: A Future Security Agenda for Canada co-edited with Francis Furtado (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016); Left of Bang: North American Maritime Domain Awareness and NORAD”s Maritime Early Warning Missions co-authored with Andrea Charron and Nicholas Allarie (Centre for Defence and Security Studies, 2015); NORAD in Perpituity, co-authored with Andrea Charron (Centre for Defence and Security Studies, 2015); “The NORAD Conundrum: Canada, missile defence and military space” International Journal. 70:2. June 2015; Perspectives of Muslim-Faith, Ethno-Cultural Community Based and Student Organizations in Countering Domestic Terrorism in Canada, co-authored with Kawser Ahmed and Alexander Salt (TSAS, 2014); “Ballistic Missile Defence: NATO’s European Phased Adaptive Approach” Atlantisch Perspectief. 4: 2013; “The Right Debate: Airpower, the Future of War, Canada’s Strategic Interests and the F-35 Decision.” Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, Winter 2012; Canada and Ballistic Missile Defence 1954-2009: Déjà vu all over again, Canadian War Museum Military History Series. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010. Dr. Fergusson is currently the H. Col, for 2 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg.

William C. Graham: First elected as Member of Parliament for Toronto-Centre-Rosedale in 1993, Bill Graham served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 2002 until July 2004 and Minister of National Defence from July 2004 until January 2006.  In February 2006, he was appointed leader of the Official Opposition and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, positions he served until December 2006. From 1995 to 2002, Mr. Graham served as chairman of the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Active in international parliamentary associations, Mr. Graham was elected founding president of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas. He has served as vice president and treasurer of the Parliamentary Association of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and as treasurer of Liberal International. In 2014, he was appointed Member of the Order of Canada. Prior to his election to parliament, Mr. Graham practiced law at Fasken & Calvin, specializing in civil litigation and international business transactions, and served on the board of directors of various public and private Canadian corporations. Subsequently, he taught international trade law, public international law, and the law of the European Community at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. A past president of the Alliance française de Toronto, Mr. Graham has been recognized for his contributions to French language and culture in Ontario by being appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur and Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade. He is currently Chair of the Board at the Canadian International Council.

George A. Lopez is the Hesburgh Professor of Peace Studies Emeritus at the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame. For the past 30 years he has researched and advised on economic sanctions, peacebuilding, the United Nations and various peace related issues. His work in these areas has taken him to 20 countries. From September 2013 – July 2015 Lopez served as the Vice President of the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC. From October 2010 through July 2011, he served on the United Nations Panel of Experts for monitoring and implementing UN Sanctions on North Korea. Since 1992, Lopez has advised various international agencies and governments regarding sanctions issues, ranging from limiting their humanitarian impact to the design of targeted financial sanctions. He has written 35 articles and book chapters, as well as written authored/ edited six books [often with David Cortright], including The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s and Putting Teeth in the Tiger: Improving the Effectiveness of Arms Embargoes [with Michael Brzoska]. Lopez-Cortright research detailing the unlikely presence of WMDs in Iraq appeared before the war in “Disarming Iraq” in Arms Control Today [Sept 2002] and then after the war in “Containing Iraq: the Sanctions Worked” in Foreign Affairs [July/August 2004]. He is bringing to a close a major research project with United Nations University entitled The Sanctions Enterprise: Assessing a Quarter-Century of UN Action for Peace, Security and Human Rights. From May-December 1997, he served as interim executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and then chaired its Board of Directors until June 2003, presiding over the moving of the hands of The Doomsday Clock in 2002.

Dr. Patrick McEachern is a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in residence at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.  He is co-author of North Korea, Iran, and the Challenge to International Order (Routledge, 2017) and author of Inside the Red Box: North Korea’s Post-totalitarian Politics (Columbia University Press, 2010).  He is currently working on a new co-authored book entitled Survivor: North Korea from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Un.  His other publications can be found in the Journal of East Asian Studies, Asian Survey, Korea Yearbook, and elsewhere.  He has been a Foreign Service Officer since 2002, serving in Tokyo, Seoul, Washington, DC, and Bratislava, Slovakia.  He speaks Korean and Slovak.  Patrick received his PhD in Political Science from Louisiana State University.

Dr. Adam Mount, Ph.D. is Senior Fellow & Director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, where his work covers U.S. nuclear strategy and force structure, global nuclear politics, deterrence, and North Korea. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In 2015-16, he directed the CFR Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward North Korea, a group of seventeen experts chaired by Adm. Mike Mullen and Sen. Sam Nunn. Their report, A Sharper Choice on North Korea: Engaging China for a Stable Northeast Asia issued ten findings and six recommendations for the next president’s policy toward the regime. Dr. Mount’s other writing has been published by Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Survival, Democracy, and other outlets, and he is a columnist at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. His analysis has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, AFP, AP, and Reuters, and he has appeared on CNN, CBS, BBC, MSNBC, and CNBC programs. He has testified before the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the Department of Government at Georgetown University, and a B.A. from Reed College.

Professor Kyung-Ae Park holds the Korea Foundation Chair at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs of the University of British Columbia. She serves as the Director of the Canada-DPRK Knowledge Partnership Program (KPP), a program she established in 2010, and also as the Co-Director of the Center for Korean Research.  The KPP has been hosting six North Korean professors each year since 2011 for six-month periods of study at UBC, as part of a long-term knowledge sharing and academic exchange and thus represents an unprecedented, ground-breaking program in North America. She is a former president of the Association of Korean Political Studies in North America. She is the author, coauthor, and editor of many scholarly publications on issues ranging from North and South Korean politics and foreign relations to gender and development.  Notable publications include Non-Traditional Security Issues in North Korea; North Korea in Transition: Politics, Economics, and Society; New Challenges of North Korean Foreign Policy; Korean Security Dynamics in Transition, and China and North Korea: Politics of Integration and Modernization.  She has also authored articles in a number of journals, including Comparative Politics, Journal of Asian Studies, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, and Pacific Review. Since the mid-1990s, she has made many trips to Pyongyang and hosted North Korean delegation visits to Canada, playing a key role in promoting track II exchanges and diplomacy between the two countries.

Donald S. Rickerd, C.M., Q.C. is a graduate of Queen’s University, Balliol College, Oxford, and Osgoode Hall Law School. He practiced law in Toronto, taught at York University, and was President of the Donner Canadian Foundation in Toronto, the W.H. Donner Foundation in New York, and the Max Bell Foundation in Toronto. He served for four years on the Royal Commission on Certain Activities of the RCMP, and is currently a Senior Fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto and a Counsellor in the International Relations Program at the Munk School of Global Affairs.858&action=edit

Professor Andre Schmid is Chair and Associate Professor in the Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto. His book Korea Between Empires, 1895-1919 was winner of the John Whitney Hall award of the Association of Asian Studies for outstanding book of the year. He is currently working on a book on the reconstruction of North Korea after the Korean war, entitled Socialist Living in North Korea, 1953-1965. He has a forthcoming article on the historiography of North Korea in the April issue of American Historical Review and has published widely in North America and Asian academic journals.

Dr. Mark Sedra: Over the past decade, Mark’s research has focused on peace building and state building processes in fragile and conflict-affected states. He has conducted research on several countries and regions, including Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and the Balkans. Mark has been a consultant to governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs, including the United Nations, Global Affairs Canada and the UK Department for International Development. In 2012, Mark founded the Security Governance Group, a private research consulting firm, and the Centre for Security Governance, a non-profit think tank, both of which specialize in international peace and security issues. He is also currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo and Balsillie School of International Affairs. Mark has held a variety of positions in the international affairs field both in Canada and globally, including: Senior Researcher and Program Leader at the Centre for International Governance Innovation; Cadieux-Léger Fellow at Global Affairs Canada; Visiting Research Fellow at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom; and Researcher and Project Manager at the Bonn International Centre for Conversion. He has published widely and is a regular commentator on security issues in the Canadian and international press. His most recent book, Security Sector Reform in Conflict-Affected Countries: The Evolution of a Model, was published by Routledge in the fall of 2016.

Scott A. Snyder is senior fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His program examines South Korea’s efforts to contribute on the international stage; its potential influence and contributions as a middle power in East Asia; and the peninsular, regional, and global implications of North Korean instability. Mr. Snyder is the author of South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers (January 2018) and coauthor of The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States (May 2015) with Brad Glosserman. He is also the coeditor of North Korea in Transition: Politics, Economy, and Society (October 2012), and the editor of Global Korea: South Korea’s Contributions to International Security (October 2012) and The U.S.-South Korea Alliance: Meeting New Security Challenges(March 2012). Mr. Snyder served as the project director for CFR’s Independent Task Force on policy toward the Korean Peninsula. He currently writes for the blog Asia Unbound.

Jenny Town is the Assistant Director of the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and manages programs on North Korea, nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, US-ROK alliance and Northeast Asia regional security. She is the Managing Editor and Producer of “38 North,” a web-journal providing analysis of events in and around the DPRK–from social evolution to political developments to WMD. She is an expert reviewer for Freedom House’s Freedom in the World Index, where she previously worked on the Human Rights in North Korea project. And she is also an Associate Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS, a Senior Fellow for Korea Studies at the America Foreign Policy Council, an Associate Member of the Council of Korean Americans, and a Member of the National Committee on North Korea.

Prior to working in Korean affairs, she was the Communications Director for Peace X Peace; the Director of the Washington (DC) Office/Special Projects Manager for Government Relations at the College Board; and a Project Manager at Clarity Coverdale Fury Advertising, Inc. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Melton Foundation and the Editorial Board for Inkstick.

Stephen Wallace grew up in Halifax and Ottawa, studied the arts and business administration, and has focused much of his career on international affairs and public administration. His early work as a teacher, volunteer, diplomat and aid worker concentrated mainly on Africa and Latin America. Mr. Wallace spent many years with the Canadian International Development Agency, serving in turn as vice-president of the Policy Branch and Afghanistan Task Force. His public policy assignments included the Special Joint Committee of Parliament Reviewing Canadian Foreign Policy, as well as work on civil society with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. As a senior public servant, Mr. Wallace also served as assistant secretary of the Treasury Board Secretariat and associate deputy minister for the Department of Canadian Heritage. Stephen Wallace was Secretary to the Governor General and Secretary General of the Order of Canada from 2011 to 2017. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian International Council, Senior Fellow of Massey College, and a board member of several corporations and non-government institutions.