Richard Haass is a veteran diplomat and influential voice on American foreign policy. He in his sixteenth year as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the preeminent independent, nonpartisan organization in the United States devoted to issues of foreign policy and international relations. He has served as the senior Middle East advisor to President George H.W. Bush and as the State Department's director of policy planning under Secretary of State Colin Powell. He was also U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and the U.S. envoy to both the Cyprus and Northern Ireland peace talks. A recipient of the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and the Tipperary International Peace Award, Dr. Haass is also the author or editor of thirteen books on U.S. foreign policy and one book on management. His latest book is A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order , published in 2017 by Penguin Press. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds master’s and doctorate of philosophy degrees from Oxford University. He was born in Brooklyn and lives in New York.

Jin Jingyi is a Korean-Chinese scholar who was born 1953 in Jilin, China. He received his masters and Ph.D. degrees from Peking University’s School of International Studies, and now serves as an honorary professor at the same university. He is renown as the top expert in China on Korean Peninsula-related issues. Professor Jin holds balanced perspectives toward the political climate of Northeast Asia, as he travels often to Seoul, Pyongyang, and Tokyo. In past, he also served as Visiting Professor at Keio University’s Research Institute for Regional Planning and Development in Japan, Visiting Scholar at the Academy of Korean Studies, and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Far East Studies. In China, he served as the Director of Peking University’s Korean Culture Research Institute as well as Vice Chair of Korean Peninsula Research. His major publications include, The Origins of Chinese Intervention in the Korean War and Unification of the Koreas and China’s National Interest and has published more than 50 research papers.

Jeong Se-Hyun is a former Minister of Unification of the Republic of Korea, who served under president Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun. He was born in the Manchuria region of China in 1945. Jeong received his BA, MA, and Ph.D. all in political science from Seoul National University. After his service in government, he became the President of Wonkwang University, and is now Chairman of the Korea Peace Forum and Chairman of the Institute for Peace and Cooperation among other titles. Jeong became involved in unification-related issues back in 1977 when he was specially appointed as a researcher at the Office of Communist Regimes at the Board of National Unification. While he was Minister of Unification, he played leading roles in launching the Gaeseong Industrial Complex as well as North-South railroad connections, at a time when North-South meetings had been most numerous ever. Among the 143 agreements between the two Koreas signed since 1971, 73 were consummated while Jeong was Minister. He is renown as an strong proponent of conciliatory DPRK relations as well as dialogue, having clashed many times with hard-liners over the years. His publications include, The Daring Journey, Let’s Go to Pyongyang with Jeong Se-Hyun and Jeong Cheong-Rae, and Special Lectures on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Yeon Chul is the Minister of Unification of the Republic of Korea. He is a political scientist who mainly studied DPRK issues, receiving his Ph.D. in political science from Sungkyunkwan University for his research into the origins of how the DPRK adopted its unique political system and leadership. In past, he served as Chief Researcher of the DPRK Research Team at the Samsung Economic Research Institute, then as Policy Advisor to Minister of Unification Chung Dong-Young under the presidency of Roh Moo- Hyun, having handled the North-South ministerial talks as well as related joint events. He also served as a professor of unification studies at Inje University until joining the presidential campaign of candidate Moon Jae-in and the Democratic Party in 2017. He was the advisor to the Moon Jae-in administration’s unification policy—specifically the “New Korean Peninsula Regime” idea, having developed the theoretical foundation of what would become the three objectives, four strategies, and five principles of Korean Peninsula policy. Based upon his speciality in DPRK and unification-related issues, he became the President of the Korea Institute for National Unification in 2018, and in April of 2019 was appointed as the second Minister of Unification under the Moon Jae-in administration. Minister Kim proposed in his inaugural speech the three key points of North-South relations being “peace equals economy,” “decentralization and coordination,” and “communication and consensus,” adding that he would “establish and reinforce a virtuous cycle where the economy is a means of cementing peace and peace becomes a foundation in turn for promoting economic cooperation.”

Yang Moon-Soo is the Vice President of the University of North Korea Studies. He was born in 1963 and received his masters and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Tokyo. He started out as a reporter for a daily newspaper, then a researcher at the LG Economic Research Institute. Afterwards, he started giving lectures at the Graduate School of North Korea Studies at Kyungnam University and the University of North Korea Studies. He is a renown expert on the DPRK’s economy, who most recently published his research papers, “North-South Economic Cooperation in the Age of Denuclearization and Peace Regime on the Korean Peninsula” and “North Korea’s Economic Reform Measures in the Era of Kim Jong Un: Comparative Perspectives with China.” He is also active as a writer and lecturer on the DPRK’s economy, with the publications, Support Measures for North Korea’s Special Economic Zones and Development Zones, North Korea’s Economic Structure , and The Market and Government in North Korea’s Economy.