Professor Liu Ming on Security Challenges of the Korean Peninsula

The flurry of recent ballistic missile tests has brought North Korea and its nuclear proliferation programme back to the top of the global agenda. For South Korea the news strengthens its case for hosting the US-owned THAAD missile defence system, but it also raises questions around the level of influence China has over the Kim regime, a relationship already strained.

This event will consider the next steps for Chinese diplomacy,  and for South Korea in countering the threat from North Korea.

Liu Ming is research professor, executive director of the Institute of International Relations (IIRS), and director of the Center for Korea Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS). He was director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at SASS. Liu got his PhD in political sciences from World Economy Institute, Fudan University. He has also been a visiting scholar at Columbia University, Seoul National University and Stanford University, respectively in 1993, 1996 and 2000. Liu has contributed extensively to several leading Chinese and English journals in China, the US, Canada and South Korea, including the papers “Opportunities and Challenges for Sino-American Cooperation on the Korean Peninsula” and “China and the North Korean Crisis: Facing Test and Transition”.

The discussion will be chaired by RUSI Research Fellow Veerle Nouwens.