Guest lecture: North Korea: The conundrum with a human face

What is the character and strategic outlook of the North Korean regime? Why has Kim Jong Un chosen to send troops to Russia to join the war against Ukraine? This lecture by Ambassador John Everard, UK Ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from 2006-2008, will answer these questions, along with considering human rights issues and North Korea’s nuclear programme, and concludes by reflecting upon the lives of ordinary North Koreans.

John Everard served in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for twenty-seven years, working in Austria, Bosnia, Chile, and China (twice). He served as Ambassador three times, in Belarus, Uruguay and lastly in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 2006-2008. After his retirement from the diplomatic service he was appointed Pantech Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University from 2010-2011. He was then appointed as Coordinator of the United Nations Security Council Panel of Experts established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1874 (dealing with sanctions on the DPRK). He withdrew from that position in November 2012 and has since written extensively for the media, broadcast and lectured, both on Korean issues and on international affairs generally. He published a book Only Beautiful, Please in 2012 that described his experiences of living and working in the DPRK and discussed some of the challenges presented by that country.