"There is no such thing a free lunch."

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Yesterday, I attended a wonderfully enlightening forum dedicated to examining and discussing the current situation facing North and South Korea, and what if any, possible path toward reunification may look like. The National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC) Denver Chapter presented the event which included a panel of distinguished speakers from the Josef Korbel School, the South Korean government, and several other academic and military institutions. Professor Suisheng (Sam) Zhao, whose course I am taking this upcoming spring quarter, generously invited all of his students to attend as his guests to the event. Ambassador Hill, the current dean of the Josef Korbel School, was also scheduled to attend as the keynote speaker. Unfortunately, due to prior engagement, he was unable to attend and instead sent his remarks via dvd.

Never one to take my poorly defined sense of direction for granted, I arrived extraordinarily early. Using the public transportation to travel around the city inevitably means I will show up at least thirty minutes early to any function. Luckily, the event was located at a hotel within walking distance of the light rail.  Despite this, I did end up walking along the side of a small highway without a sidewalk, and felt slightly unnerved the entire time, but also relieved that there was still enough daylight for cars to notice me walking.

The night began with an informal reception and a small quartet playing classical music. Many of the guests began arriving and we were ushered into a small room to await the opening of the forum. I found a table, sat down, and was soon joined by an elderly gentlemen and his wife. He introduced himself as a Korean war veteran said that he had decided to flirt with me for a while. After making some small talk, I left the table to pick up a few copies of several journals the NUAC were giving away to guests for free, and also grabbed a few copies for my new friends. The gentleman I was speaking with was so grateful he awarded me a medal, and made me an “honorary Korean war veteran”. I think I can easily say that it was definitely the easiest and most undeserved award I have ever earned.

Once the program officially opened it progressed with a succession of  keynote speakers, wonderful cultural presentations of traditional Korean music and dance, and of course, an impressive, and seemingly endless multi-course dinner. The culmination of all of these presentations was the panel discussion featuring: Dr. Bruce Bechtol, the Consul General of South Korea in San Francisco, Mr. Jeong Gwan Lee, Professor Suisheng (Sam) Zhao, PhD, Dr. Christian Ostermann, and Professor Ved Nanda, PhD. The panelist represented a broad spectrum of expertise, each one presenting on a different topic relevant to the reunification process. The panelists presented theories on whether or not reunification was possible, the future of the North Korean regime without Kim Jong-il’s in the event he is succeeded by his son, China’s role in the region to  further along or impede reunification based upon its own national interest, and an outline of the reunification process based upon the experience of Eastern and Western German reunification. Following the presentation, the panelists spent a significant amount of time answering questions from the audience, and immediately following this Q&A session the event was adjourned. Overall, as a person interested in learning more about the extremely complex and tense situation on the Korean peninsula and what roles other significant actors in the region are likely to play, I was extremely pleased with the forum.