Sung-Yoon_Lee

Sung-Yoon Lee

Sung-Yoon Lee

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"Lee Sung-yoon" redirects here. For the footballer, see Lee Sung-yoon (footballer).
In this Korean name, the family name is Lee.

Sung-Yoon Lee (Korean: 이성윤; Hanja: 李晟允) is a scholar of Korean and East Asian studies, and specialist on North Korea.[3][4][5][6] He is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[7] He is the former Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor in Korean Studies and assistant professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.[8][9][7] He was also an associate in research at the Korea Institute, Harvard University.[10] and a research fellow at the National Asia Research Program.[11]

Quick Facts Born, Nationality ...

In June 2023, Lee published his first book, The Sister: North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World, profiling Kim Yo-jong, the sibling of, and closest aide to, Kim Jong Un, North Korea's leader.[12][13]

Lee has provided advice to the U.S. government and is an outspoken proponent of several policies aimed at changing the North Korean regime towards a path of denuclearization and improvement of human rights, while keeping the peace and stability in Northeast Asia. Lee has argued that this can be accomplished with a dual strategy of stern treatment of the North Korean government through unwavering economic sanctions aimed at weakening the leadership and security apparatus, while engaging the country's people through information campaigns that break their isolation from the outside world, humanitarian aid, and a global campaign of human rights.

He has also stated that the U.S. and its military presence in Northeast Asia have brought decades of stability and prosperity to the region, and supports its continued stationing in the Korean peninsula. He also encourages the eventual unification of Korea under the South's direction, with the active support of the U.S. and China, and a resulting united country that is amicable to both powers.

Education

Lee majored in American and British literature at New College in Sarasota, Florida, graduating in 1991. He pursued his graduate studies at the Fletcher School, completing his Master of Arts in 1994, and his Ph.D. in 1998.[9] John Curtis Perry became his doctoral advisor and developed a lifelong mentor-mentee relationship.[2][14] In his dissertation "The antinomy of divine right and the right to resistance: tianming, dei gratia, and vox populi in Syngman Rhee's Korea, 1945–1960", Lee analyzed the interplay between Confucianism and democracy in defining political authority and statecraft during the early years of the Republic of Korea.[2]

Career

Professors John Curtis Perry and Sung-Yoon Lee; Perry was Lee's doctoral advisor, and subsequently colleague at the Fletcher School, developing a lifelong relationship of friendship and mentorship.[2][14] In this picture they are seen visiting, as part of an academic delegation, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, Korea, in 2015.

Upon completing his PhD, Lee joined the faculty of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy as the adjunct assistant professor of international politics in 1998 and until 2005. Concurrently he was also the visiting assistant professor of history at Tufts university starting in 2000 and until 2005. Between 2005 and 2006 he was the Kim Koo Research Associate at the Korea Institute, Harvard University. In 2007 he resumed his position at the Fletcher School, and in 2012 became the first holder of the newly created chair Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of Korean Studies.[9][15] He held that position until 2023,[16] afterwards becoming a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[7][17]

He has taught International Relations of the United States and East Asia 1945 to Present, United States and East Asia, Politics of the Korean Peninsula: Foreign and Inter-Korean Relations, and North Korean State and Society.[6][18][19]

Lee has also been an adjunct assistant professor of Asian studies at Bowdoin College in 2000,[20] and the visiting professor of Korean studies at Sogang University in 2007, and at Seoul National University from 2012 to 2016.[21][22][23]

From 1999 until 2013 Lee was an associate in research at the Korea Institute, Harvard University.[9][10][24] There he launched a new seminar series, the “Kim Koo Forum on U.S.-Korea Relations”, in 2005.[9][25] He is a former research fellow with the National Asia Research Program, a joint initiative by the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[11] Lee has attended numerous conferences as a speaker, moderator and interpreter.[9] He is also a frequent commentator on Korean affairs on radio, television and print,[26][27][28][29][30] with The Guardian calling him "among the most insightful and prescient chroniclers" on the behavior of North Korea's regime.[31] Lee has also testified in the United States Congress to provide expert advice on North Korea policy issues.[30][32][33][34][35][36][37]

Since 2013 Lee has been advising the U.S government on legislation and other executive action against the North Korean regime, including strengthening U.S. sanctions. He has advised both the U.S President and legislators, including participating in Congressional hearings for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee.[38][39][40][41]

He has frequently contributed to media outlets, also making there a case for sanctions.[38][39][41]

These efforts contributed towards a bill, passed in 2016, of unprecedented tough sanctions primarily aimed at restricting cash flows into the country in an effort to undermine its nuclear warhead and long-range missile development, and constrict Pyongyang's ability to pay (and retain the loyalty of) its party elites, security forces, and military.[38][39]

In 2018 Lee participated in the Warmbier v. DPRK trial in Washington D.C. as an expert witness for the prosecution.[42][43][44] The judge ruled against the DPRK, in the torture, hostage taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier.[45]

Policy views on North Korea

Sung-Yoon Lee in a 2013 U.S. congressional hearing on North Korea's criminal activities

Lee has advocated for a strategy of stern treatment of the North Korean government, while engaging the North Korean people. That includes economic pressure aimed at the elite, especially targeting its palace economy that depends on illicit activities including proliferation, smuggling, counterfeiting, and money laundering.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3] It also means availing substantial humanitarian aid, provided it reaches the intended recipients, increasing efforts to disseminate more information from the outside world into North Korea, facilitating defections, and pressing for a global campaign of human rights.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5]

Lee has underscored that the only non-military way to force North Korea into a real negotiation on denuclearization and human rights is to exert sustained economic and propaganda pressure to "destroy the Kim regime’s instruments of self-preservation":[lower-alpha 6] A nuclear program, a loyal ruling class, and a submissive society.[lower-alpha 6][lower-alpha 7][lower-alpha 8][lower-alpha 9][lower-alpha 10][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 11][lower-alpha 12] That is, by on the one hand pushing more outside information into the North so its society can turn against the regime, and on the other hand by exerting sanctions that limit the cash used to prop the military and ruling apparatus, the regime would weaken to the point of near-collapse, forcing it to negotiate a transition, including a pragmatic way out for the Kim family.[lower-alpha 9][lower-alpha 10][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 11][lower-alpha 12]

Lee has frequently urged policymakers not to fall for the "self-defeating"[lower-alpha 13] trap of short-term concessionary diplomacy,[lower-alpha 14] and instead take the long view of an unwavering strategy of pressure. Lee sustains that refraining from making concessions in exchange for North Korea halting its cyclical belligerence is the most effective way to deter future provocations.[lower-alpha 15][lower-alpha 16][lower-alpha 13][lower-alpha 17][lower-alpha 18][lower-alpha 19]

Achieving denuclearization and regime change

Financial and trade sanctions

Lee emphatically has asserted that "the only nonmilitary means of forestalling [North Korea's nuclear and missile developments] is for the U.S. to enforce both American and United Nations sanctions against the North Korean regime and its enablers, the foremost of which remains China."[lower-alpha 20][lower-alpha 18]

Sanctions should be primarily imposed (as some have) by the U.N. Security Council, and therefore make them binding on the entire international community. However, these "so far did little damage to Pyongyang’s economy thanks to Beijing’s massive material support through the backdoor,"[lower-alpha 21] further, Beijing has demonstrated "a disingenuous pattern of diplomatic ambidexterity. China has made token gestures like signing on to UN Security Council resolutions while failing to enforce them fully"[lower-alpha 7]

Sanctions are the means to reduce external inflows of cash that the regime needs to advance its nuclear and missile development, as well as to keep its ruling class and security apparatus loyal. These sanctions, if made strong and sustained in time, would lead to significantly weakening the regime to the point of near-collapse; by prompting "bankruptcy and the consequent destabilization"[lower-alpha 20] and the "specter of revolt or regime collapse",[lower-alpha 7] South Korea and the U.S. could negotiate from a position of strength a peaceful transition of the regime that would include real denuclearization and improvement of human rights,[lower-alpha 20] as well as a pragmatic "way out for the Kims."[lower-alpha 7][lower-alpha 6]

Lee has concluded that a key point of leverage are American-led financial sanctions, since the regime deeply relies on dollars as its foreign currency, and the U.S. is uniquely positioned to use its control over the dollar-based international financial system as well as its economic might, to more effectively impose and enforce sanctions.[lower-alpha 22][lower-alpha 23][lower-alpha 20][lower-alpha 6] Overall, Lee recommends:

  • Direct sanctions on North Korea's international trade and financial flows.[lower-alpha 22][lower-alpha 24]
    • Block any trade of arms, luxury goods, and other goods or services that are a significant source of cash or material support to the regime.[lower-alpha 25][lower-alpha 23]
    • Freeze the assets of Kim Jong Un or any of his top deputies, who are believed to have billions of dollars in European and Chinese banks.[lower-alpha 26]
  • Secondary sanctions: Impose sanctions on North Korea's partners, "thus presenting them with a strong economic disincentive: Either continue to do business with North Korea and be blocked out of the U.S. financial system or stop all business with North Korea and continue to have access to the U.S. financial system,"[lower-alpha 27]

As a reference point on strength and duration of sanctions, Lee remarks that it took several years for a combination of direct and secondary sanctions to bring Iran back to the bargaining table.[lower-alpha 23][lower-alpha 7][lower-alpha 6] Moreover, contrary to popular belief, sanctions on North Korea are not "maxed out"; rather, until the sanctions imposed by the U.S. in 2016, American sanctions against North Korea were much weaker than those applied to Iran, Syria, or Burma, Belarus, and Zimbabwe.[lower-alpha 30][lower-alpha 31][lower-alpha 23] The 2016 U.S. sanctions brought the enforcement against the North to a "normal" level.[lower-alpha 23]

Avoiding concessionary diplomacy

Lee argues that the North Korean regime has a well-established cycle of escalating tensions,[lower-alpha 32] followed by overtures to dialogue and deescalation. The latter bait counterparts that are always eager to resume peace talks, into prematurely softening their sanctions on the North and even sending funds and aid,[lower-alpha 18] just to see the North violate any agreements made,[lower-alpha 8] and restart the cycle.[lower-alpha 33] In this way, the North has extracted profitable concessions at every cycle. Furthermore, the idea of the North negotiating the surrender of their nuclear program is all but an illusion[lower-alpha 8] unless the regime comes to a point of near-collapse.[lower-alpha 8][lower-alpha 20][lower-alpha 10][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 11][lower-alpha 12][lower-alpha 17]

Information campaign

Lee has written that "applied in greater force and scale, propaganda may be a more powerful deterrent than force. Pyongyang rightfully fears the precedent of Seoul responding asymmetrically with information warfare. (...) Just imagine if Seoul and Washington vastly increased funding for radio broadcast and other information operations into North Korea, as they well should. In an Orwellian world, 'War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.' In the surreal world of the DPRK, the past 62 years of de facto peace in Korea is war, a life of extreme servitude to the state is freedom, and national strength is preserved by keeping the people ignorant of the outside world."[lower-alpha 8] Therefore, "informing and educating the North Korean people is not only the right thing to do"[lower-alpha 8] but also a way to "delegitimize Kim's rule in the eyes of his people"[lower-alpha 9] and create "great leverage vis-à-vis Pyongyang."[lower-alpha 8][lower-alpha 7]

United States: Continued commitment to regional stability

Lee supports a continued commitment by the US, asserting that the "U.S. has always had in its diplomatic toolbox various useful implements like financial sanctions, measures to prevent illicit activities and weapons proliferation, freeze fuel oil delivery and unconditional aid, and human rights campaigns through the international media in concert with other civilized nations of the world, not to mention UN Resolutions".[lower-alpha 34][lower-alpha 1]

Lee has also proposed the U.S. "hold quiet consultations with Beijing to prepare jointly for a unified Korea under Seoul’s direction, a new polity that will be free, peaceful, capitalist, pro-U.S. and pro-China".[lower-alpha 13][lower-alpha 35]

Lee opposes the signing of a peace treaty between the U.S. and North Korea (frequently demanded by the latter) absent substantial changes in the regime.[lower-alpha 12] He has stated that "North Korea is not seeking peace, but rather a change in the military balance of power on the Korean peninsula",[lower-alpha 13] and that "real peace is won by resolve and sacrifice, while ephemeral peace is all too often concocted only by vowels and consonants".[lower-alpha 36][lower-alpha 37] Lee maintains that the U.S. military presence in Korea has brought decades of geopolitical stability in the broader region and should remain in the peninsula regardless of the eventual signing of a peace treaty.[lower-alpha 13]

South Korea: Reconciliation through strength and pragmatism

Lee advocates for a stronger lead by South Korea, reinforcing programs for resettlement of refugees, and pressing on in the global campaign for human rights.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 38] Lee also supports a South Korean policy of exercising a "resolute mix of stoicism and principled apathy"[lower-alpha 39] when faced with North Korea's attempts at provocation and brinksmanship.

Lee was a strong critic of the Sunshine Policy (in force between 1998 and 2008), calling it a failed policy.[lower-alpha 40] He stated that the North Korean regime would not be appeased by blandishments, further, such concessions prop the regime and prolong its oppression of the people.[lower-alpha 41]

Reconciliation should be sought from a position of strength. South Korea should remain pragmatic, recognizing that "peace in the region has been kept for the last 50 years by the commitment on the part of the United States to the defense of South Korea".[lower-alpha 41] Lee also has advocated for increased missile defense capabilities by the South."[lower-alpha 42]

Lee has stated that "amnesia or apathy"[lower-alpha 43] of the new Korean generations towards their history "can be reversed through sustained education and the public ritual of remembrance",[lower-alpha 43] so that "the lessons of the most traumatic past must be learned and continually relearned, not only to prevent such a tragedy from repeating itself, but also to honor, as one nation, those who made our freedom possible, and to remember that freedom is certainly never free".[lower-alpha 43]

Assessment of North Korea

Cyclical brinksmanship strategy

Most notably in his 2010 "Pyongyang playbook" in Foreign Affairs, Lee argued that contrary to a persistent misconception that North Korea's provocative international behavior is unpredictable, Pyongyang's methods have been highly consistent since the early 1960s;[lower-alpha 19] "Its strategy has been to lash out at its enemies when it perceives them to be weak or distracted, up the ante in the face of international condemnation (while blaming external scapegoats) and then negotiate for concessions in return for an illusory promise of peace."[lower-alpha 19] He further argued that since North Korea cannot economically compete with South Korea, the North's regime relies "only on military and political brinkmanship to make up ground"[lower-alpha 19]

Regime and human rights

Lee characterizes the North Korean regime as "uniquely unique",[lower-alpha 1] for being the world's sole communist hereditary dynasty; the only literate, industrialized and urbanized peacetime economy to have suffered a famine;[lower-alpha 3] the most cultish totalitarian system; the most secretive, isolated country; and the largest military in terms of manpower and defense spending proportional to its population and national income.[lower-alpha 1] Lee has also called the regime a criminal enterprise, for activities including money laundering,[lower-alpha 29] human enslavement by having the world's largest prison and slave labor camps, and for nuclear extortion.[lower-alpha 1] Lee further asserts that North Korea is the most systematic violator of human rights, having committed nine out of the ten crimes against humanity as specified in article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[lower-alpha 39][lower-alpha 43]

Leadership and succession

Main article: The Sister: The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea

Lee profiled Kim Yo Jong, the sister, closest deputy, and potential successor to North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un.[lower-alpha 44][lower-alpha 45][lower-alpha 46] He concluded that she is the second most powerful person in North Korea, after her brother. Lee also asserted that she is one of the most powerful and dangerous leaders in the contemporary world.[lower-alpha 47][lower-alpha 48][lower-alpha 49] Lee argued that this is because she is the second in command of a regime that has nuclear weapons, is bellicose towards other countries, represses its own people, and has no checks and balances on its leadership.[lower-alpha 47][lower-alpha 48][lower-alpha 49]

Lee postulates she is best positioned among the Kim family members to succeed her brother, especially if he were incapacitated before his own children had grown up. Were she to become the supreme leader, her personality and track record suggest that she would not be a reformist and would rule her country with an iron fist much like her predecessors.[lower-alpha 50][lower-alpha 51][lower-alpha 52][lower-alpha 53] Also in her current governmental positions including foreign policy, Lee warns against mistaking her femininity for weakness or amenability, and describes her as cold and ruthless.[lower-alpha 47][lower-alpha 48][lower-alpha 49]

Nuclear pursuit and denuclearization talks

Talking about the logic for the regime's nuclear pursuit, he remarked that "a nuclear North Korea is unlike a nuclear China or Russia. During the Cold War, neither Beijing nor Moscow faced an existential threat in the form of an alternate Chinese or Russian state. Pyongyang, on the other hand, has had to live with a far more prosperous and legitimate Korean state across its southern border."[lower-alpha 20] A nuclear capability by the North would undermine the U.S. commitment to defending the South, and "a nonnegotiable means of isolating and exercising dominance over Seoul" and as the key to ensure the long-term survival of the Kim regime.[lower-alpha 20][lower-alpha 54][lower-alpha 55][lower-alpha 56][lower-alpha 57]

Therefore, lee has repeatedly called negotiations on denuclearization "nuclear blackmail"[lower-alpha 38][lower-alpha 18] by the North and believes that "short of change in the Pyongyang regime, further fits of nuclear negotiations are all but an exercise in futility",[lower-alpha 38] in which the Kim regime treating negotiations (including the six-party talks) as "a perpetual multilateral forum for receiving economic and political aid".[lower-alpha 34][lower-alpha 20][lower-alpha 10]

Post-collapse planning

Lee anticipates that in case of collapse, "a power vacuum in Pyongyang will require the immediate dispatch of South Korean and U.S. troops. Next will come other regional powers -- Chinese peacekeeping forces securing the northern areas, followed by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force transporting people and supplies along the Korean coastlines. In the short term, a multiparty international presence north of the 38th parallel under the nominal banner of the United Nations will enforce order and provide aid."[lower-alpha 58][lower-alpha 59]

Lee also supports a US-South Korea joint "emergency response measures such as securing the North's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, maintaining public safety, controlling borders, and providing humanitarian aid to displaced North Koreans", as well as long-term development similar to post-WWII reconstruction of Japan.[lower-alpha 58][lower-alpha 59]

List of works

Main article: Sung-Yoon Lee bibliography

Selected works

  • Lee, Sung-Yoon (2023). The Sister: The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea. Macmillan / PublicAffairs (Hachette). ISBN 9781529073539.
  • Lee, Sung-Yoon (August 26, 2010). "The Pyongyang Playbook". Foreign Affairs.
  • Lee, Sung-Yoon; Stanton, Joshua (2015). "North Korea's Next Dare – What Is Coming—and What to Do About It". Foreign Affairs.
  • Lee, Sung-Yoon (January 18, 2017). "How Trump Can Get Tough on North Korea - Making Kim Pay for Belligerence". Foreign Affairs.
  • Lee, Sung-Yoon; Stanton, Joshua; Klingner, Bruce (2017). "Getting Tough on North Korea: How to Hit Pyongyang Where It Hurts". Foreign Affairs. 96 (65).

References

Sung-Yoon Lee's career and profile are sourced from the following works

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Notes

Sung-Yoon Lee's policy views on North Korea are sourced from the following works

  1. Daniel Blumenthal (February 12, 2013). "North Korea is a nuclear criminal enterprise". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on February 28, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
  2. Amanpour, Christiane (February 22, 2010). "What is Happening Inside North Korea?". CNN. Archived from the original on June 1, 2013. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  3. Samuelson, Tracey (January 6, 2016). "North Korea: isolated but staying afloat". Marketplace. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  4. Sung-Yoon Lee (February 13, 2013). "Hit Kim Jong Eun where it hurts: His wallet". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 21, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  5. Sung-Yoon Lee (November 30, 2010). "Hitting the North". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  6. Lee, Sung-Yoon; Stanton, Joshua (February 10, 2016). "Make Pyongyang Pay – Stop North Korea by hitting it where it hurts: its wallet". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on January 29, 2017.
  7. Lee, Sung-Yoon (May 17, 2017). "Why Do We Appease North Korea?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-01-05. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  8. Pyon, Changsop (August 26, 2015). "Interview: Korean Accord to 'Increase the Illusion of a Reasonable North Korea". Radio Free Asia. Archived from the original on May 28, 2017. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  9. Lee, Sung-Yoon; Stanton, Joshua (January 15, 2016). "How to get serious with North Korea". CNN. USA. Archived from the original on 2018-01-26. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  10. Sung-Yoon Lee (February 13, 2009). "Pyongyang Home Truths: Does Hillary Clinton understand the North Korean regime and how to deal with it?". Wall Street Journal Asia. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  11. Penny Spiller (December 15, 2006). "Low hopes for North Korea talks". BBC News. Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  12. Tom Evans (February 22, 2010). "U.N. official: North Korea should get food aid". CNN. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  13. Sung-Yoon Lee (December 2010). "Keeping the Peace: America in Korea, 1950–2010". Imprimis. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  14. Lee Kwang-ho; Tony Chang; Cinjeon Gauh; Han Hye-won; Bae Jin-hwa (January 2011). Kim, Sung-so; Moon, Jeong-sik; Kwak, Seung-ji (eds.). "Why Does Pyongyang Repeatedly Make Aggressive Provocations?" (PDF). Vantage Point. 36 (1). Seoul, South Korea: Yonhap News Agency: 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 16, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  15. Choe Sang-Hun (December 6, 2012). "North Korea Gets Ready for Launching". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  16. Kate Woodsome (October 5, 2012). "North Korean Media Urge 'Great War' Ahead of South Korean, US Elections". Voice of America. Archived from the original on April 5, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  17. Tan, Huileng (August 29, 2017). "Crank up the sanctions and forget talking with North Korea, experts tell the US". CNBC. USA. Archived from the original on 2017-09-03. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  18. Chandran, Nyshka (August 14, 2017). "The worse North Korea acts, the more cash aid it gets". CNBC. USA. Archived from the original on 2018-01-25. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  19. Beaumont, Peter (April 6, 2013). "Is North Korea's threat more than posturing this time? - It's wise to look at North Korea's strategy over the past 50 years to understand the present crisis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11.
  20. Lee, Sung-Yoon (September 6, 2017). "The Way to Make North Korea Back Down". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  21. "North Korea Claims Successful Hydrogen Bomb Test, Draws Global Condemnation". Radio Free Asia. Broadcasting Board of Governors (U.S. Government). January 6, 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-03-17. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  22. Borowiec, Steven; Hennigan, W.J. (February 8, 2016). "Punish or engage? No easy answer to North Korea's nuclear ambitions". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2017-05-20. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  23. "Interview: China's 'Sanctions Non-enforcement Is Too Extensive to Be Mere Negligence'". Radio Free Asia. Broadcasting Board of Governors (U.S. Government). February 16, 2016. Archived from the original on July 2, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2018. contrary to the widespread perception that U.S. sanctions against North Korea are maxed out, they are relatively weak. Washington has frozen the assets of most of the top officials of the governments of Belarus and Zimbabwe for undermining democratic processes and institutions, but very few high-ranking North Korean officials overall, and none to date for political repression. The U.S. has designated government officials in Syria, Sudan, and Burundi for human rights abuses, but no North Korean officials. It has threatened and blocked the access of Iran and Burma to the financial system by declaring them to be Primary Money Laundering Concerns under the Patriot Act, but it has not applied this designation to North Korea, the world's leading currency counterfeiter and money launderer. Even after North Korea's terrorist threats against American civilians drove a film that parodied Kim Jong Un from theaters across the U.S. in late 2014, the Obama Administration did not return North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that would have closed important loopholes in current U.S. sanctions. The new bill that's now on President Obama's desk addresses all these shortcomings and much more. It requires that the U.S. government make a good-faith effort to investigate and punish North Korean perpetrators of nuclear and other WMD proliferation, transfer of luxury goods, cyber crimes, censorship, and human rights violations and their third-country enablers pursuant to 'mandatory sanctions' provisions. In short, the new legislation reinforces U.S. sanctions against North Korea to the level of U.S. sanctions again Iran and several other countries; that is, to a 'normal' degree.
  24. Ghosh, Nirmal (September 23, 2017). "US order cranks up pressure but unlikely to rein in N. Korea". The Straits Times. Singapore. Archived from the original on 2017-09-24. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  25. Klingner, Bruce (February 7, 2017). Going Beyond 'Strategic Patience:' Time to Get North Korean Sanctions Right - Testimony before Asia Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee, United States House of Representatives - "The Shocking Truth about North Korean Tyranny" (PDF) (Report). United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. p. 17. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  26. Stanton, Joshua; Lee, Sung-Yoon (January 5, 2016). "Beef Up Sanctions on North Korea". The Wall Street Journal. p. A11. Archived from the original on 2018-01-24. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  27. "Obama Signs New Sanctions Aimed at Stopping North Korea's Atomic Program". Radio Free Asia. Broadcasting Board of Governors (U.S. Government). February 19, 2016. Archived from the original on 2017-07-02. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  28. Klinger, Bruce (April 29, 2014). "Time to Go Beyond Incremental North Korean Sanctions". 38 North, U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. USA. Archived from the original on 2017-09-08. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  29. "FPI Bulletin:: Responding to North Korea's Nuclear Test Author(s): Evan Moore". FPI Bulleting. Foreign Policy Initiative: 2. January 7, 2016.
  30. Terry, Sue Mi (February 7, 2017). North Korea's Perpetual Provocations: Another Dangerous, Escalatory Nuclear Test - Statement before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (PDF) (Report). United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. pp. 4–5. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  31. Terry, Sue Mi (September 14, 2016). North Korea's Perpetual Provocations: Another Dangerous, Escalatory Nuclear Test - Statement before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific (PDF) (Report). United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 26, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  32. Russel, Daniel R. (April 2019). "What to expect from a Nuclear North Korea". Asia Society Policy Institute - Issue Paper: 8, 17.
  33. Schifrin, Nick (August 15, 2017). "Does Kim Jong Un's latest statement signal he's open to diplomacy?". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). USA. Archived from the original on 2018-02-08. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  34. Sung-Yoon Lee (December 19, 2008). "Obama to North Korea: Patience is a High Virtue, but Virtue Can Hurt You/Patience is North Korea's Virtue". Boston: The Korean American Press. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  35. Ed Royce (March 5, 2013). North Korea's Criminal Activities: Financing the Regime (PDF). Expert witnesses: ASHER, David L.; LEE, Sung-Yoon; DTRANI, Joseph R. (CIS Number: 2013-H381-20; Sudoc Number: Y4.F76/1:113-4; Serial No. 113-4 ed.). Washington DC: Committee on Foreign Affairs. House. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 18, 2014. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  36. Sung-Yoon Lee (August 2, 2007). "Peace or appeasement with Pyongyang? (p.1)". Asia Times online. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  37. Sung-Yoon Lee (August 2, 2007). "Peace or appeasement with Pyongyang? (p.2)". Asia Times online. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  38. Sung-Yoon Lee (April 15, 2008). "Bush, Lee and that North Korea problem". Asia Times online. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  39. Sung-Yoon Lee (April 5, 2008). "Exhuming North Korea's Crimes Against Humanity / Pyongyang shoots itself in the foot". The Korean American Press. Archived from the original on March 9, 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  40. Sung-Yoon Lee (August 24, 2009). "Ain't No Sunshine". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on August 29, 2009. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  41. Sung-Yoon Lee (February 21, 2003). "Turn Off the Goodwill: The North Is a Threat". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
  42. Thomson, Jason (July 21, 2016). "Will THAAD make the Korean peninsula safer?". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 2018-02-08. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  43. Sung-Yoon Lee (June 5, 2008). "Remembrance of the Korean War/A new light on the Korean War". Boston: The Korean American Press. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  44. "The Sister - A vivid portrait of a ruthless, egocentric woman driven by an unrelenting sense of entitlement and destiny". Kirkus Reviews. June 15, 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-05-24.
  45. Monk, Paul (May 18, 2023). "Twisted sister: inside Pyongyang's house of horrors". The Australian.
  46. Kang, Hyun-kyung (August 21, 2022). "Interview: 'North Korean leader's younger sister is ambitious, bossy' - Author of 'The Sister' says Kim Yo-jong will succeed Kim Jong-un to become the supreme leader of North Korea, in case her brother is incapacitated". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 2022-08-29.
  47. Lloyd Parry, Richard (June 3, 2023). "Who is Kim Jong-un's sister Yo-jong? Meet North Korea's true leader - Murmurs are emerging from the secretive state that the force behind the dictatorship is female. Could she be next in line for the throne?". The Times. UK. Archived from the original on 2023-06-03. Retrieved 2023-06-03.
  48. Ruggiero, Anthony (October 7, 2023). "Kim Yo Jong Is the World's Most Dangerous Woman – A new book profiles the possible future leader of North Korea". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 2023-10-08.
  49. Kirkpatrick, Melanie (September 8, 2023). "'The Sister' Review: North Korea's Sibling Dynasty - Kim Jong Un was not the only member of his family raised to rule. His sister Kim Yo Jong displays an instinct for power". The Wall Street Journal.
  50. "Is North Korea's propagandist-in-chief also its dictator-in-waiting? - As Sung-Yoon Lee explains in "The Sister", Kim Yo Jong is not merely Kim Jong Un's sibling". The Economist. June 22, 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-06-22.
  51. Dite, Chris (June 19, 2023). "Understanding North Korea, Beyond Its Palace Intrigue - Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, looks destined for power in North Korea. But political dynamics in the country are far more complex than Western observers often appreciate". Jacobin. Archived from the original on 2023-06-19.
  52. Osterberg, Christopher (July 9, 2023). "Death at the click of the fingers". The Budapest Times. Hungary. Archived from the original on 2023-07-10.
  53. Howell, Edward (January 8, 2024). "The sister: the extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea. By Sung-Yoon Lee". International Affairs. 100 (1). Chatham House: 453–454. doi:10.1093/ia/iiad301.
  54. Nye, Joseph (December 6, 2017). "Understanding the North Korea Threat". Project Syndicate. Archived from the original on 2018-01-08. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  55. Bell, Matthew (September 15, 2017). "It's decision time for the Trump administration on North Korea". WVNC. North Carolina, USA. Archived from the original on 2017-09-17. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  56. "Dominance over south non-negotiable goal for N. Korea - expert". Newstalk ZB. New Zealand. September 4, 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-02-08. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  57. Yuen, Stacey (September 4, 2017). "Why the next North Korea missile launch could be this Saturday". CNBC. USA. Archived from the original on 2018-02-04. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  58. Sung-Yoon Lee (February 16, 2010). "Life After Kim". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on August 15, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  59. Banyan (February 17, 2010). "North Korea after Kim Jong Il – North Korea after He's gone". The Economist. UK. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
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