Global NK Zoom & Connect has met with leading South Korean researchers who study North Korea and listened to their voices to understand current research on North Korea. For this issue, we interviewed Young-Sun Ha (Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the East Asia Institute and Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University). Based on the public speeches Kim Jong Un made last year, Chairman Ha predicts that improvements in inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. relations are unlikely to occur as long as Pyongyang insists on its principle of the U.S. and South Korea abandoning “double-dealing standards” and “hostile policies.” Chairman Ha points out that although it is highly unlikely for the DPRK to make a strategic decision on complete denuclearization, Kim Jong Un will face fundamental dilemmas if he persists on the current Byungjin line.

■ Young-sun Ha is Chairman of the board of trustees at the East Asia Institute. He is also Professor Emeritus of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Seoul National University. Dr. Ha serves as a member of senior advisory group for the Inter-Korean Summit Talks Preparation Committee (2018-). He also served as a member of the Presidential National Security Advisory Group (2008-2016), the Co-chairman of Korea-Japan Joint Research Project for New Era (2009-2013), the Director of the Center for International Studies and American Studies Institute at Seoul National University, the President of the Korea Peace Studies Association, and a research fellow at the Center for International Studies at Princeton University, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Stockholm. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University, and holds a Ph.D. in international politics from the University of Washington