The Honorable Chung Ui-Hwa is the ROK National Assembly Speaker (Acting), a member of the 18th National Assembly, Vice Speaker, member of the National Defense Committee, Chair of the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade Organizing Committee and Acting President of the World Scout Parliamentary Union. He has served as a member of the ruling party supreme council and on the Intelligence Committee. Speaker Chung has served for a decade and a half in Korea’s National Assembly. A trained physician, Speaker Chung hails from Busan, where he attended Busan National University; he later earned degrees at Yonsei and InJe University.
In his brief, formal remarks, Speaker Chung Ui-Hwa will suggest that reunification cannot be achieved without stronger inter-Korean relations and cooperation with countries concerned, especially with the United States. He argues that the U.S. and China must move beyond strategic rivalry and enter into a more amicable partnership that facilitates unification. The table will be open for dialogue, to be followed by a special reception after.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The Korea Society Welcomes
ROK National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-Hwa
with
The Honorable Chung Ui-Hwa
ROK National Assembly Speaker (Acting)
What is the current trajectory of U.S.-DPRK relations? Should denuclearization continue to be the central focus of U.S. approach? Joining us for this next installment of The Korea Society’s highly popular Knowing North Korea series, Dr. Patrick M. Cronin, Senior Advisor and Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), speaks from his groundbreaking paper suggesting change. Cronin served prior as the Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at National Defense University and has a nearly thirty-year career inside government and academic research centers, spanning defense affairs, foreign policy, and development assistance.
Hotly contested and viewed by many as a bellwether for the December presidential election in Korea, the April 11 parliamentary election pits the conservative, incumbent Saenuri Party, led by Park Geun-hye against the liberal Democratic United Party, under Han Myeong-sook. The conservative Liberty Forward Party (Sim Dae-pyung) and left-progressive United Progressive Party (Rhyu Si-min, Lee Jung-hee and Sim Sang-jeong), as well as center-right K Party and center-left New Progressives, also weigh into the mix. Though the liberals have formed a coalition, the conservatives appear more fragmented, with Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak loyalists seemingly at odds. Stanford University Professor and Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Gi-wook Shin and Columbia University Professor and Director of the Center for Korean Research Charles Armstrong lead an intimate conversation on the results the day-after, their implications in the near-term, and their impact on the upcoming presidential elections. This is a special rapid reaction podcast recording session for regular policy attendees at The Korea Society.
