China and North Korea: Past, Present, and Future

With international attention focused on a potential U.S.-North Korea summit meeting in May, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a surprise trip to Beijing in late March to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The North Korean leader’s visit to Beijing, his first foreign visit since assuming power in late 2011, came amid strained bilateral relations in recent years. Kim and Xi appear to have reinvigorated the historical bonds between the two countries and reaffirmed China’s crucial role in the future of the Korean Peninsula. This conference will explore the dynamics and tensions of the historical relationship between China and North Korea, the potential impact of Korean reunification on China, and China’s role in a limited military conflict and its aftermath.

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Speakers:

Nancy Lindborg

President, U.S. Institute of Peace

Thomas Banchoff

Vice President for Global Engagement, Georgetown University

Panel 1: China and North Korea Relations

Panelists:

Dennis Wilder, Moderator

Managing Director, Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues; Assistant Professor of Practice, Asian Studies Program, Georgetown University

@dennisw5

Stella Xu

Associate Professor of History, Roanoke College

Yafeng Xia

Professor of History, Long Island University Brooklyn

Junsheng Wang

Visiting Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council

Director and Associate Professor, Department of China’s Regional Strategy, National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

Panel 2: Would a Reunified Korea under South Korean Leadership be Positive or Negative for China?

Panelists

Frank Aum, Moderator

Senior Expert on North Korea, U.S. Institute of Peace

@frankaum1

Yun Sun

Co-Director, East Asia Program; Director, China Program, Stimson Center

Heung-Kyu Kim

Director and Professor of Political Science, China Policy Institute, Ajou University, South Korea

Michael Green

Chair in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy and Director of Asian Studies, Georgetown University

Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies

@JapanChair

Keynote Address

Speakers:

Ambassador Mark Lippert, Keynote Speaker

Current member of the Board of Trustees at the Asia Foundation and former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea.

@mwlippert

Oriana Skylar Mastro, Moderator

Assistant Professor of Security Studies, Georgetown University

Jeanne Kirkpatrick Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

@osmastro

Panel 3: War and its Aftermath on the Korean Peninsula – What Role Could China Play?

Panelists:

Jennifer Staats, Moderator

Director, East and Southeast Asia Programs, U.S. Institute of Peace

Abraham Denmark

Director, Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

@AbeDenmark

Lieutenant General Jan-Marc Jouas

USAF (Ret.) Former Deputy Commander, US Forces Korea and United Nations Command Korea

Oriana Skylar Mastro

Assistant Professor of Security Studies, Georgetown University

Jeanne Kirkpatrick Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

@osmastro