On Monday, June 20, 2022, the GW Institute for Korean Studies and the Korea Institute for Korean Unification (KINU) co-hosted a Korea Policy Forum, "COVID Outbreak in North Korea: Political Economy of the Public Health Crisis".
Event Description:
-Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, North Korea has enforced one of the world's most strict "Zero-COVID" policies. With its sealed borders and severely limited international trade, North Korea claimed for over two years that there were no positive COVID-19 cases in the country. While many doubted the veracity of these claims, North Korea was one of the last countries with no official reported cases. This all changed in May 2022 when state media officially confirmed that cases had indeed entered North Korea and that country was in the midst of an Omicron outbreak.
As North Korea now struggles to keep this new outbreak under control, many questions have arisen on the government's capability to handle a public health crisis of this magnitude. How will North Korea react to this new outbreak and what does this mean for the political and economic stability of North Korea? We invite you to join the GW Institute for Korean Studies and the Korea Institute for National Unification for an online discussion on the impact of this latest crisis in North Korea.
Speakers:
-Jisoo Kim, Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies
-Yu-hwan Koh, President, Korea Institute for National Unification
-Wootae Lee, Director of the Humanitarian and Cooperation Research Division, Korea Institute for National Unification
-Rachel Minyoung Lee, Regional Issues Manager and Senior Analyst, Open Nuclear Network
-William Brown, Chair, North Korea Economic Forum, GW Institute for Korean Studies
-Ken Gause, Director of Adversary Analytics Program, CNA
-Jea Hwan Hong, Research Fellow, Korea Institute for National Unification
Moderator:
-Yonho Kim, Associate Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies
