Jung H. Pak joins Brookings as senior fellow and SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies

Washington, DC – Jung H. Pak has been appointed senior fellow and SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies. Pak will be affiliated with the Center for East Asia Policy Studies in the Foreign Policy program.

“We are pleased to welcome Jung,” said Brookings president Strobe Talbott. “The Institution is committed to conducting research on pressing foreign policy matters, and with the current escalation in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Jung could not have joined at a more critical time. She will be a strong addition to our Asia team and to our community.”

Pak joins Brookings after a long career in intelligence and academia. A specialist on the Korean Peninsula and U.S.-East Asia foreign policy, Pak has held senior positions at the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. From 2006 to 2008, she was adjunct assistant professor at Hunter College in New York, where she helped launch the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. Pak earned a PhD in U.S. History from Columbia University and a BA from Colgate University. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in South Korea during her graduate studies at Columbia University.

Pak’s work at Brookings will focus on North Korea’s WMD capabilities, the regime’s domestic and foreign policy calculus, internal stability, and inter-Korean ties. On a broader scale, Pak will aim to initiate interdisciplinary forums to bolster regional dialogue on counterterrorism, nonproliferation, cybersecurity, and climate change.

“I am delighted to have Jung join the Foreign Policy program,” said Bruce Jones, vice president and director of Foreign Policy at Brookings. “Her deep expertise and analytic experience will be a great asset to our work, especially during these turbulent times in East Asia.”

Richard Bush and Mireya Solís, co-directors of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies, also welcomed Pak. “Her expertise on all aspects of the Korean Peninsula, and her attention to transnational challenges such as cyber security and non-proliferation that endanger the region and beyond will complement and strengthen the work of our scholars across a broad range of issues,” they said.

The SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies is housed in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies (CEAP), founded in 1998 as the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies to promote research and analysis of policy issues facing East Asia and the United States. CEAP has launched the Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies, the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, and the Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asia Studies. Under the leadership of its co-directors, Bush and Solís, CEAP senior fellows conduct research on the political, economic, security and social issues facing East Asia, and sponsor an array of policy-oriented seminars, discussions, and publications.