In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

With rumors of Korean President Kim Jong-Il’s ailing health abounding, Former Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the U.S, Han Sung-Joo addressed packed crowds in Washington and San Francisco at the formal launch of The Asia Foundation’s America’s Role in Asia.  Ambassador Han asked: “The question is, is North Korea more or less likely to give up its nuclear weapons if there is a government change; or, if Mr. Kim Jong Il becomes incapacitated, is North Korea going to become more or less dangerous than now?”  At both the National Press Club and the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, and at the Four Seasons in San Francisco, Ambassador Han addressed policymakers, Asian and U.S. diplomats, executives, journalists and philanthropists. America’s Role in Asia is a new book of candid, specific foreign policy recommendations written over the past year by 20 distinguished Asian and U.S. experts for the next U.S. administration. Copies were hand-delivered in August to top foreign policy advisors to both presidential candidates. The volume warns: “Asia requires urgent U.S. attention. The new administration must accord Asia the attention its intrinsic importance to us demands.”

Read Ambassador Han Sung-Joo’s complete essay.