South Korea in 2025: Democratic Evolution and Implications for Policy
VIEW EVENT DETAILS
Last month’s political upheaval in South Korea—from the declaration and reversal of martial law to the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol—has highlighted the vibrancy and resilience of the country’s democracy. The political crisis will continue until South Korea’s Constitutional Court rules on the impeachment charges. If the impeachment holds, this will be the second time a South Korean president has been removed from office in the last decade, but the story of South Korea’s struggle for democracy has deeper roots in the country’s 70-plus years of history.
Join the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) for an in-depth discussion on the historical and regional context of the current events in Seoul. Expert panelists will explore the evolution of political democracy in South Korea over the past decades to try to address how did it get here and how is it likely to evolve, and what does it mean for South Korea’s place in Northeast Asia and its relations with the regional powers in a period of growing uncertainty.
The virtual discussion, moderated by Emma Chanlett-Avery, ASPI Director of Political-Security Affairs, will feature: John Delury, Visiting Professor of Political Science at Luiss University in Rome; Ji Yeon (Jean) Hong, Associate Professor of Political Science and Korea Foundation Chair Professor of Korean Studies at the University of Michigan; Scott A. Snyder, President and CEO at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI); and Tae Gyun Park, Professor of Korean Studies at the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University.
Speakers

John Delury is a historian of modern China and expert on East Asian affairs, focusing on US-China relations and the Korean Peninsula. He is the author of Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA’s Covert War in China (Cornell University Press, 2022) and co-author with Orville Schell, of Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century (Random House, 2013), which was translated into Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In 2023, he was selected as the inaugural Tsao Family Prize Fellow in China Studies at the American Academy in Rome, and he remained in Rome as visiting professor of international history and politics at Luiss University in the fall of 2024. Before relocating to Italy, Dr. Delury was based in Seoul for over a dozen years as Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies. His articles can be found in Asian Survey, Journal of Asian Studies, and Journal of Cold War History, essays in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New Statesman, New York Times, and Washington Post, and book reviews in Global Asia and American Historical Review. He is a senior fellow of the Asia Society, public intellectual fellow of the National Committee on US-China Relations, board member of the Pacific Century Institute, leadership council member of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, non-resident fellow at the Sejong Institute, CSIS and European Centre for North Korean Studies, and member of the Council of Foreign Relations and National Committee on North Korea. Dr. Delury received his BA, MA, and PhD in history from Yale University.

Ji Yeon (Jean) Hong is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies. Her research focuses on the political economy of authoritarianism, with particular attention to East Asia. She has various ongoing research projects related to the legacy of the authoritarian past, the long-term impact of political violence, and the determinants of elite behavior and government policies under authoritarianism. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor (2014-2020) and Associate Professor (2020-2022) at the Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

Tae Gyun Park is a Professor of Korean Studies at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS), Seoul National University. He was the former dean of the GSIS from 2020-2022. Professor Park was also the Director for Future Vision and committee member of the Presidential Committee for Policy Planning (2020-2021) and advisor to the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Professor Park earned his Ph.D. from Seoul National University in 2000, and he was also a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Yenching Institute from 1997-1999.

Scott A. Snyder is President and Chief Executive Officer at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI). Previously, he was a Senior Fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2011 to March 2024. Mr. Snyder is the author of The United States-South Korea Alliance: Why It May Fail and Why It Must Not (December 2023) and South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers (January 2018). Mr. Snyder received a BA from Rice University and an MA from the regional studies East Asia program at Harvard University.

Emma Chanlett-Avery is Deputy Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute's Washington, DC office and the Director for Political-Security Affairs. Previous to this post, she served for 20 years as a Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, where she focused on U.S. relations with Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Thailand, and Singapore, with an emphasis on security issues and alliances. In 2023, she served as a Congressional Fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assisting the Chairman with drafting Asia policy legislation and preparing for hearings. Ms. Chanlett-Avery was a Presidential Management Fellow, with rotations in the State Department on the Korea Desk and at the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in Bangkok, Thailand. She also worked in the Office of Policy Planning as a Harold Rosenthal Fellow. She is a member of the Mansfield Foundation U.S. – Japan Network for the Future and a Mansfield-Luce Asia Network Scholar. In 2016, she received the Kato Prize, awarded by Washington think tanks for strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance. She serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Japan America Societies, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Japan America Society of Washington DC, and as a Trustee of International Student Conferences, Inc. Ms. Chanlett-Avery received an MA in international security policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and her BA in Russian studies from Amherst College.