Art of the Deal: The Korean Peninsula and the Changing Security Landscape – An Interview with Dr. John Park

Dr. John Park is Director of the Korea Project and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. He is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Project on Managing the Atom. Dr. Park’s core research projects focus on the political economy of the Korean Peninsula, nuclear proliferation, economic statecraft, Asian trade negotiations, and North Korean cyber activities.

Dr. Park was the 2012–2013 Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow at MIT’s Security Studies Program. He previously directed Northeast Asia Track 1.5 dialogues at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. He advises Northeast Asia policy-focused officials in the U.S. government.

Dr. Park worked at Goldman Sachs, where he specialized in U.S. military privatization financing projects. He earlier worked in Goldman Sachs’ M&A Advisory Group in Hong Kong and The Boston Consulting Group’s Financial Services Practice in Seoul. Dr. Park is a commentator on Asian geopolitical issues on CNN, BBC, CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV. He also advises institutional investors on geopolitical risk in Asia-Pacific markets

Dr. Park’s key publications include: “Stopping North Korea, Inc.: Sanctions Effectiveness and Unintended Consequences,” (MIT Security Studies Program, 2016 — co-authored with Jim Walsh); “The Key to the North Korean Targeted Sanctions Puzzle,” The Washington Quarterly (Fall 2014); “Assessing the Role of Security Assurances in Dealing with North Korea” in Security Assurances and Nuclear Nonproliferation (Stanford University Press, 2012); “North Korea, Inc.: Gaining Insights into North Korean Regime Stability from Recent Commercial Activities” (USIP Working Paper, May 2009); and “North Korea’s Nuclear Policy Behavior: Deterrence and Leverage,” in The Long Shadow: Nuclear Weapons and Security in 21st Century Asia(Stanford University Press, 2008).

His current research focuses on the North Korean regime’s accumulated learning in evading sanctions. Dr. Park received his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He completed his pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. Dr. Park has testified on North Korea before the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee.