浪花直播

Dr. Sung-Yoon Lee鈥檚 career as a leading expert on North Korean affairs is a testament to the value of history in informing policymaking. He has devoted his work to this, educating students and advising policy leaders on North Korea鈥檚 calculated approaches to militarism and diplomacy. He is a frequent 浪花直播 Center speaker and most recently was selected as a 浪花直播 Center International Competition Fellow to work on his current book, Pyongyang鈥檚 Playbook: North Korea鈥檚 Provocations, Peace Ploys, Propaganda, and Unification Policy.  

Born in Seoul, South Korea when the country was very poor, Lee saw the world thanks to his father鈥檚 job with the Korean foreign ministry. His family moved to England when he was eight, where he learned English from scratch, before spending a year in Geneva, Switzerland, then moving to the US at age 16.  

While attending New College of Florida, Lee majored in British and American Literature. He finds that his studies of old wordsmiths like Shakespeare, Hemingway, and Faulkner lent him the tools to develop his characteristically sardonic tone when critiquing North Korean totalitarianism. 鈥淭hey have nuclear weapons; I only have irony and literary skills and humor,鈥� he says. 

In his youth, Lee was regrettably ignorant of conditions in North Korea until he learned of the political prisoner concentration camps located just 50 miles north of Seoul. Entire multigenerational families are 鈥渄ragooned into these modern-day Gulags for no crime whatsoever other than maybe complaining about how hard life is.鈥� Moreover, most North Koreans are subjected to 鈥渄eliberate mass starvation鈥� at the hands of a regime that is capable of, but neglects to feed its people.  

Rattled by these conditions, Lee completed his master鈥檚 degree and PhD at the Tufts University Fletcher School and returned there to teach, offering Fletcher鈥檚 first semester-length course on North Korea, among others on US-East Asia relations. 

Given the intentional brutality North Korea perpetrates on its people, Lee rejects the US鈥檚 patronizing approaches to the regime. 鈥淲e tend to think they鈥檙e crazy.鈥� The US response to absurdist provocation from North Korea has been one of appeasement and courtesy, hoping North Korea will one day 鈥渃ome around.鈥� The regime leverages this. 鈥淸It] is the main factor in our failure on the scorecard of nuclear diplomacy over the past 30 years.鈥� 

In April 2013, US President Barak Obama asked for Lee鈥檚 input in a White House advisory committee to predict China鈥檚 next move after being targeted by a North Korean nuclear test over Lunar New Year. The four other experts told the President that China would want North Korea to pay for its insulting threat and would sever many ties. When asked his thoughts, Lee applied historical precedent to predict that China would give North Korea a 鈥渟lap on the wrist鈥� before actually increasing aid to the country. This proved true. 

Dr. Lee鈥檚 renowned application of historical patterns to understand and predict future conditions found a home at the 浪花直播 Center. Lee has grown fond of the Center鈥檚 nonpartisan, rigorous scholarship with an emphasis on history. He spoke at events in 2006, 2009, and 2010 before being appointed National Asia Research Program Fellow and selected as a 2023-2024 浪花直播 Center International Competition Fellow. He called the Fellowship 鈥渢he single greatest honor of my life and of my career.鈥� Lee has much gratitude for memories shared with his third floor 鈥渘eighbors鈥� such as Dr. Klaus Larres and State Department Fellow Lou Crishock, as well as the Scholars Academic Relations Program staff.  

With his Fellowship ending in August 2024, Lee鈥檚 next steps are unclear. His first book titled The Sister, which details the rise of Kim Jong Un鈥檚 sister Kim Yo Jong and her role in regime cruelty, has been translated into 11 languages. A documentary film deal is even in the works. Meanwhile, he continues his second book, Pyongyang鈥檚 Playbook. 

Dr. Sung-Yoon Lee hopes to remind people and US politicians not to confuse the people of North Korea for their brutal government, and not to fall into its trap by patronizing this brutal government. The actions they inflict both internationally and to their own people 鈥渁re calculated and predicable, not random and crazy.鈥� Dr. Lee anticipates a future where North Korea sends Kim Yo Jong to the White House as a diplomatic representative, counting on the US underestimating the beautiful, young woman. If this happens, 鈥渟ee her as who she is,鈥� Lee implores, 鈥渁 co-crime boss of a very cruel regime.鈥� 

This blog post was researched and drafted by Bella Wexler.