Thursday, June 01, 2017, 12:00 - 13:30

Situation of Korean Peninsula and Further Development

Language: The speech and Q & A will be in English

Defying UN sanctions and US warnings, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile on May 21 for the eighth time this year, or the second time in a week, disheartening South Korea’s liberal President Moon Jae-in who took office only 10 days earlier with his hope for inter-Korean engagement.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un immediately ordered mass production and deployment of medium-range missiles in his pursuit of developing a nuclear-tipped weapon that can hit US targets, while two US mega aircraft carriers were set to rendezvous off the Korean Peninsula in a show of force to pressure Pyongyang to drop its plan for a sixth nuclear weapons test.

But Takushoku University professor Hideshi Takesada, a widely quoted Japanese expert on Korean affairs, says a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Kim is possible to defuse the nuclear crisis.

When the deal-making Trump told media on May 1 that he might meet Kim "under the right circumstances," Takesada said that the US and North Korea had planned an informal contact in March that could possibly pave the way for such a summit.

The March meeting was called off after Kim's exiled elder half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was assassinated in a chemical attack by suspected North Korean agents. But American academics and former government officials, including former ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering, did meet a North Korean delegation led by a senior diplomat during May 8-9 in Oslo.

A graduate of Keio University with fluency in Korean, Takesada served as a researcher for 36 years until 2011 at a Defense Ministry think-tank, the National Institute for Defense Studies, and taught at South Korea's Yonsei University from 2011-2013.

Please reserve in advance, 3211-3161 or on the website (still & TV cameras inclusive). The charge for members/members' guest is 1,750/2,700 yen; non-members eligible to attend may pay in cash by e mail reservation (front@fccj.or.jp). (Menu:hamburger steak with steamed vegetables.) Reservations canceled less than one hour in advance for working press members, and 24 hours for all others, will be charged in full. Reservations and cancellations are not complete without confirmation. For meal service, please enter the room by 12:25.

Professional Activities Committee

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