Kim Jong Un, son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, appears poised to accept a transfer of power from his father.  While the nature and timing of that transfer is not known, even more uncertain is the future of the country he would inherit.   What can international experts learn from migrants and refugees about health and other conditions in North Korea?  A panel of experts discussed these questions at a critical time in North Korea’s history.

Read the event analysis, Health and Migration Concerns Increase for the Future of North Korea

Kim Jong Un, son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, appears poised to accept a transfer of power from his father.  While the nature and timing of that transfer is not known, even more uncertain is the future of the country he would inherit.  Floods and crop failures, currency devaluation, and mass migration all threaten to destabilize the state, and the state’s capacity to manage these threats is in decline.  The state’s public health system, in particular, has been plagued by widespread shortages of medication and equipment, as well as health care workers isolated from international advances in health care.

How can North Korea manage its increasingly obsolete health system?  What can international experts learn from migrants and refugees about health and other conditions in North Korea?  A panel of experts discussed these questions at a critical time in North Korea’s history.

Speakers

Explore Further

 

Related Publications

Three Conditions for Successful Engagement with North Korea

Three Conditions for Successful Engagement with North Korea

Monday, March 25, 2024

By: Mark Tokola

The September 13, 2023, meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in Russia’s Amur Oblast marked a significant crippling of the decades-long U.S. pressure-based approach toward North Korea. The strategy of isolating and pressuring North Korea through United Nations Security Council resolutions to compel its nuclear disarmament in exchange for providing normalized relations, economic aid and sanctions relief may or may not ever have been a winning strategy, but now is no longer viable. The strategy required cooperation among the United States, South Korea, China and Russia, but this now seems a distant prospect.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Monday, March 18, 2024

By: Kee B. Park

The United States needs to address the existing trust deficit with North Korea if it wants to coexist peacefully with that country. Trust building through health cooperation may be the least contentious way politically and the most likely to succeed. However, engagement on health and humanitarian assistance with North Korea, like security negotiations, has been undermined by geopolitics.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Climate Change as a Path to Engagement with North Korea

Climate Change as a Path to Engagement with North Korea

Monday, March 11, 2024

By: Troy Stangarone

Since North Korea broke off talks with the United States after their 2019 meeting in Stockholm, progress in engaging Pyongyang on its nuclear weapons and other issues has stalled. The pandemic likely played a significant role in cooling engagement, but Pyongyang’s growing relationship with Russia has further reduced its incentives to engage with the United States.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Increasing Stability in a Deterrence Relationship with North Korea

Increasing Stability in a Deterrence Relationship with North Korea

Monday, March 4, 2024

By: Adam Mount

A Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons remains a critical U.S. national security interest, but it is now a long-term interest. Because there is little possibility of disarming the regime in Pyongyang at an acceptable cost in the foreseeable future, the United States-South Korea alliance needs a strategy to coexist peacefully with a nuclear-armed North Korea.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

View All Publications