“Becoming Kim Jong Un: Insights Into North Korea’s Dangerous and Enigmatic Dictator”

Dr. Jung H. Pak is a senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies at the Brookings Institution. She focuses on the national security challenges facing the United States and East Asia, including North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities, the regime’s domestic and foreign policy calculus, and internal stability. She also has expertise in US-South Korea relations and northeast Asia geopolitical dynamics.

Prior to Brookings, Pak held senior positions at the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence where she led the U.S. intelligence community's strategic analysis on Korea issues as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer. Prior to her work in national security, she taught history at Hunter College in New York City and studied in South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar. A graduate and former trustee of Colgate University, Pak received her PhD in U.S. history from Columbia University.