The U.S. think tank Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on Wednesday formally launched a program dedicated exclusively to research on Korean issues.
The Wilson Center is the latest major American think tank to establish a permanent program on Korea after the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations did so.
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor and the Korea Foundation have funded the program, providing $2 million and $1 million, respectively. The program was named the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy.
The center plans to organize an annual symposium on Korea, run fellowship programs on Korean history and public policy and forums on Korea-U.S. relations, and develop educational curricula on Korean history for high school and university students.
“With this new program, we will make Korea and work on Korea so much more important in Washington,” Wilson Center President Jane Harman said in a speech at the launching ceremony attended by hundreds of people, including South Korean Ambassador Ahn Ho-young and Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“I think everyone will now appreciate how important Korea is, not that it’s not known, but sometimes people think work on Japan is preeminent in Washington. I would like to think that work on Korea will now have a new perch and everyone will notice,” she said. (Yonhap)
