Security in the Korean Peninsula

In partnership with the Asian Law and Politics Society, the James Joo-Jin Kim Program is holding an event covering the topic: Security in the Korean Peninsula. 
 
In the wake of nuclear threats and recent openness to peace talks, one area we feel is especially important on the peninsula is that of physical, political, and financial security of the two Koreas. Our goal is to give students a chance to learn more about the history of the peninsula and how the ideological split between the two regimes has led to the current events featured in our popular media today.
 
The event will be in the form of 3 panelists and one moderator, former James Joo-Jin Kim Undergraduate Fellow, John G. Grisafi. The panelists include: Co-Director of the department of International Relations at Penn, Dr. Frank Plantan, Jr., and doctoral students, Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein and Juman Kim. Their full biographies are listed below.
 
Dr. Frank Plantan Jr.
Dr. Frank Plantan currently serves as the Co-Director of the International Relations Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education and Masters in International Relations. He took his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Illinois State University. His portfolio includes eighteen years as the Director of the Penn-in-Soul Study Abroad and Internship Program, and ten years as Executive Secretary of the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy.
Dr. Plantan has taught in Political Science, International Relations and the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. His areas of interest and expertise include Northeast Asia with a special focus on the political, economic, and foreign relations of Korea; political risk analysis, counterintelligence, the history of international relations in American higher education, and the role of universities in promoting civiv engagement and democratic education.
Dr. Plantan also does occasional consulting and is a Partner in Gotham Orient Partners, an investment advisory firm. Gotham Orient Partners organized “Hedge Korea 2012,” sponsored by Korea’s Financial Supervisory Commission and the Korean Capital Markets Institute. As a member of the New York Hedge Fund Roundtable, he has spoken on investing in Korea and facilitated investment a joint venture in Korea. He also served as a consultant to the World Bank as a member of the Corporate Restructuring Team in Seoul during the Asian economic crisis in 1998-1999. Early in his career he also worked for the Economic Planning Board of the Republic of Korea.
 
Juman Kim
Juman Kim is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Theory at the University of Pennsylvania. Kim received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees both in Political Science from Yonsei University in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Prior to coming to Penn, he taught at the Korea Air Force Academy for three and a half years, where he was responsible for training cadets in political science. The courses he taught at the Academy include History of Political Thought, Nationalism and Globalization, Socialism and North Korea, and Introduction to Political Science. Kim came to Penn in 2010. As a political theorist by training, Juman Kim can offer historical and theoretical analyses on the topic proposed concerning Security in the Korean Peninsula.
 
Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein
Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein is a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania who received his M.A. at Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (2015) and his B.A. at Stockholm University (2012).
Benjamin is interested in the evolution of political control in North Korea, and particularly the role of institutions such as the inminban (neighborhood units) and self-criticism sessions and the like, after the Korean War. Additional interests include exploring the role of economic incentives in political control in East Asia.