NEWS

Conference explores timely issues on Korean Peninsula

CHAPEL HILL -- During the war in Iraq, Korea disappeared from the headlines, but peace and security issues continue to loom large on that peninsula. The United States is scheduled to begin talks with North Korea on nuclear weapons and related issues while balancing its relationship as an economic partner with South Korea.

Those developments are among the reasons organizers say they have convened a conference Wednesday (April 23) and Thursday (April 24) called "The Korean Peninsula: Time of Diplomacy and Development," at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at two locations in Raleigh. Conference events are free and open to the public.

The conference will open Wednesday at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, located in the Kenan Center and part of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC. Scheduled in Room 406 of the institute, these sessions will feature panels on U.S.-South Korean relations, and regional security issues. Counselor Lee Jae-hoon of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea will give a luncheon address from noon to 1:30 p.m. Another program on "U.S.-Korea Relations: Challenges and Concerns" will be held the same day from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Exploris Museum in Raleigh and is sponsored by the World Affairs Council of North Carolina.

On Thursday, the conference moves to the Engineering Graduate Research Center on the Centennial Campus at N.C. State, starting at 8:45 a.m. and running until 1:30 p.m. U.S. Rep. David Price will deliver an opening address on U.S.-Korea relations at 9 a.m. followed by a panel on shifting economic dynamics on the Korean peninsula, an address by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Pacific Henry Levine, and a second panel on the role of science and information technology in South Korea’s economy. Korean and American experts will address the issues and answer questions from the audience.

For more information, visit the conference Web site at http://www.ucis.unc.edu/events or contact organizer Bogdan T. Leja at (919) 962-0299.

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Contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962- 8593