The Korea Society

October 27, 2020 - The Korea Society is pleased to join KOTRA in presenting valuable lessons on career development through the K-Move program series. K-Move is a project that KOTRA has been organizing for younger Korean audiences abroad, while inviting leading professionals from different fields to share their stories on employment and settlement in the U.S. In this meaningful program, the Society and KOTRA, as co-hosts, will offer words of hope and encouragement to the young Korean professionals of today with their life and career experiences. The recent pandemic and its enormous impact on the global economy have led to unfortunate and difficult situations for Korean job seekers in the U.S. The experienced group of mentors invited will provide useful advice and directions on how we could overcome those challenges in this unprecedented time. [K-Move] Developing Your Career with Mentorship will consist of two separate sessions. In the first part, a renowned guest speaker, Soonkyu Shin, will talk about his succ

October 15, 2020 - Join us for this discussion on prospects for a peace regime and inter-Korean social integration with Frank Aum, United States Institute of Peace, Hannah Song, President & CEO at Liberty in North Korea, Rachel Minyoung Lee, former intelligence analyst for the U.S. government, and Joseph Kim, Human Freedom Initiative, George W. Bush Institute. How might the U.S. and South Korea cooperate with regional partners to pursue a long term peace process? How do generational dynamics and social changes in North and South Korea affect inter-Korean cooperation? This program is supported by a grant from the UniKorea Foundation. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1431-new-views-on-korean-peace-regime-and-unification

October 8, 2020 - Trefoil or “three-leaved plant” is a stylized form found in artifacts and architecture across culture and time. Dr. Minjee Kim begins the story with her first encounter with a gold headdress ornament of the Balhae kingdom (698-926) and traces the migration of its trefoil form throughout the 4th-6th century across Asia. Then, she travels to France, where “fleur-de-lis” adorned French crowns, clothing, textiles, and furniture as a symbol of royalty, leading to its wide contemporary appropriation by many Western institutions. The journey ends with the long and rich tradition in Kyrgyzstan where the motif is still strongly embedded in various realms of material culture of the people. While offering a view on Korean artifacts within a wider context of material resonance in human history, Dr. Kim highlights the way these artifacts adorned the body and how the craftsmanship was employed to articulate the social hierarchy. For the video version of this program (including images and slides), go here

October 1, 2020 - Daniel Russel, Vice President for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and Susan Thornton, Project Director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale University, join Senior Director Stephen Noerper for a discussion on the upcoming US Presidential election, with an eye to US policy implications for Korea and Northeast Asia. This all-star session draws on the vast foreign service experience of both Russel and Thornton, who helped lead US policy respectively as Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1430-looking-toward-the-us-presidential-election-and-korea-and-northeast-asia-policy

September 24, 2020 - Listen to our conversation with Hee Seo, the first Asian ballerina to be named principal dancer - ballet's highest title - at the American Ballet Theatre, as she discusses her illustrious career and thoughts on the future of performing art. Her dancing and fluid line exude an unhurried purity that sums up all that is lovely about ballet. - The New York Times For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1425-a-conversation-with-hee-seo

September 17, 2020 - Join Alexander Chee and Ed Park in their conversation on Younghill Kang, the first Korean-American novelist and a pioneer of Asian American literature. As they discuss the life and career of Kang and his novel East Goes West, the two eminent writers reflect on the emergence of Korean American literature in the 20th century and Kang's legacy. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1423-east-goes-west-younghill-kang-his-life-and-works

September 16, 2020 - Join us for a discussion on challenges and opportunities for continued nuclear negotiations with North Korea, featuring Markus Garlauskas, former U.S. National Intelligence Officer for North Korea, Soo Kim, RAND, and Ankit Panda, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. What are the chances that North Korea denuclearizes and what can the U.S. and South Korea do to increase those chances? Should an interim deal with snapback measures be considered good progress, or should a comprehensive deal be pursued? For more information, please visit the link beow: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1422-prospects-for-diplomacy-with-north-korea

September 10, 2020 - USC Professor and Korean Studies Institute Director David Kang joins Senior Director Stephen Noerper to discuss progress and challenges in Korea-US relations. They weigh the fallout from the host nation support talks, shifts in joint military exercises, and priorities in US-ROK relations, with an eye toward invigorating the alliance seventy years since the start of the Korean War. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1372-us-korea-relations-defining-the-alliance-anew

August 12, 2020 - America's leading authority on BTS, K-Pop, and East Asian entertainment, Tamar Herman returns to the Korea Society with her book BTS: Blood, Sweat & Tears. BTS has conquered Western music charts and social media on their way to being the biggest band in the world. With record-breaking firsts and three Billboard No. 1 albums within a year, their music and messaging has gone on to transcend the limitations of language, geography, and genre. Going behind-the-scenes of today's biggest pop band and focusing on the members, the music and the fans, Tamar Herman brings the extraordinary story of BTS to life. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1412-bts-blood-sweat-tears-with-tamar-herman

July 27, 2020 - The Korea Society honors the service and sacrifice of veterans on the anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, signed on July 27, 1953. This live, virtual ceremony combines historic video with remarks from Korea Society President Tom Byrne, the Korean Consul General to New York, Ambassador Won-sam Chang, Korean War Veterans Area Commander Salvatore Scarlato, and Korean War Veteran and retired US Congressman Charles Rangel. Scarlato and Rangel will receive the James A. Van Fleet award on behalf of American veterans who served during the Korean War at the Korea Society upcoming annual gala. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1388-the-korean-war-at-70-annual-armistice-day-salute