Korean Messiah, with Jonathan Cheng and K.A. Tony Namkung

For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00 pm on Apr. 15 for campus access.

Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event. NOTE: You cannot access campus using the QR code from Eventbrite.

Speakers: 

Jonathan Cheng, author and journalist

K.A. Tony Namkung, Member, National Committee on North Korea, US

Moderator: 

Sarah Kovner, Senior Research Scholar in the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace, Columbia University

For nearly eight decades, North Korea has marched defiantly to its own beat, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as the world’s most enigmatic nation—a nuclear-armed state ruled by a dictatorial dynasty. Underpinning the state is a personality cult more soaked in religiosity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao—one that traces its roots back to the Christian fervor of post–Civil War America. Jonathan Cheng, along with special guest K.A. Tony Namkung, take us deep inside Pyongyang, a city once so dominated by Christianity that it was known as the “Jerusalem of the East.”

Speakers’ Bios:

Jonathan Cheng is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, overseeing the Journal‘s coverage of the world’s second-largest economy across a range of areas including politics, economics, business, technology and society. Mr. Cheng oversees a team of more than two dozen correspondents and researchers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore and New York with responsibility for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

Previously, Mr. Cheng was the Seoul bureau chief for the Journal, running coverage of the Korean peninsula, including North Korea and South Korean politics and business. He began his career as an intern in the Journal‘s Hong Kong bureau, and has also worked as a markets reporter in the Journal‘s New York office.

Mr. Cheng speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, French, and Korean. A native of Toronto, Canada, Mr. Cheng graduated from Princeton University with a degree in history.

Dr. K.A. (“Tony”) Namkung, a longtime student of Korean affairs, has worked for many years, often behind the scenes, to build bridges to the DPRK on behalf of individuals and organizations in the United States, ROK, and Japan. In doing so, he has facilitated both unofficial (Track II) and official dialogues, assisted humanitarian and other not-for-profit organizations working in the DPRK, and enabled media organizations to improve their reporting on the DPRK. Dr. Namkung is an American of Korean descent who was born in Shanghai, raised in Tokyo, and educated in American schools abroad. He received his Ph.D. in Asian history from the University of California at Berkeley, served as deputy director of its Institute of East Asian Studies, and conducted research in various universities and think tanks. He is the recipient of major grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the MacArthur Foundation. He was also a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow, and a Danforth Foundation Fellow.

This event is hosted by Korea Focus and co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

Registration: To attend this event in-person, please register HERE (with one unique email address per registrant).