Haksoon Paik, Ph.D.

Dr. Haksoon Paik is currently a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for North Korean
Studies at the Sejong Institute in Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1993, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University from 1996 to 1997.
Dr. Paik has written extensively on North Korean politics, inter-Korean relations, Korean
unification, and North Korea-U.S. relations. He is co-author and co-editor of North Korea in Distress:
Confronting Domestic and External Challenges (2008), co-author of The Party, the State, and the
Military of North Korea (2007) (in Korean), Foreign Relations of North Korea (2007) (in Korean), North
Korea’s National Strategy (2003) (in Korean), Survival Strategy of the Kim Jong Il Regime (2003) (in
Korean) and North Korean Party and State Institutions in the Kim Jong-il Era (2000) (in Korean), co-
author and co-editor of International Ramifications of the North Korean Problem (1999) (in Korean), and
co-author and editor of The Structure and Strategy of North and South Korea's Unification Diplomacy
(1997) (in Korean).
Dr. Paik’s published articles include “North Korea’s Pursuit of Security and Economic
Interests: Chasing Two Rabbits with One Stone” (2008), “North Korea’s Choices for Survival and
Prosperity since 1990s: Interplay between Politics and Economics” (2007), “North Korea-U.S. Relations,
1945-2007” (2007) (in Korean), “The Relations among the Party, the State, and the Military in North
Korea, 1945-2007” (2007) (in Korean), “North Korea Today: Politics Overloaded and Secularized”
(2006), “Changing Dynamics of the North Korean System” (2006), “Strategy of Korean Unification
Diplomacy for 2020”(2005) (in Korean), “North Korea's Economic Reforms, the Nuclear Problem, and
President Roh's Policy toward North Korea”(2004), “United Nations and Weapons of Mass Destruction:
The North Korean Nuclear Case”(2004), “Re-alignment of the ROK-U.S. Alliance and Overcoming
Domestic Conflicts in South Korea” (2004) (in Korean), “North Korea’s South Korea Strategy” (2004)
(in Korean), “Steering Between Red Lines: A South Korean View” (2003), “The Future of the Korean
Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO)” (2003), “Changes in the U.S.-North Korean
Relations during the Bush Administration and the North Korean Nuclear Problem” (2003) (in Korean),
“The Vietnamese Experience of Reform and Opening and North Korea’s Choice” (2003) (in Korean),
“Assessment of the Sunshine Policy: A Korean Perspective” (2002), and “North Korea’s Opening and
Reform and Prospects for De-socialization” (2001) (in Korean).
Dr. Paik is currently a policy advisor to South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In addition, he is a policy advisor to Kim Dae-jung Peace Center, the Chairman of the Policy Committee
of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, and a news commentator for the Korean
Broadcasting System (KBS). He was a policy advisor to the Ministry of Unification and the head of the
Ministry’s Policy Evaluation Committee, and the Executive Director of the Seoul-Washington Forum.
Email: hspaik@sejong.org / Tel: (+82-16) 324-5517 (Mobile) / Fax: (+82-31) 723-7983