16 October 2025
A new phase? Roundtable puts focus on engagement with North Korea
Relations between North Korea and the outside world was the focus of a roundtable discussion hosted by King’s College London.
Participants at the event analysed inter-Korean relations, US-North Korea relations and Europe’s policy towards North Korea.
In the context of deepening ties with China and Russia and calls by South Korea and the United States to resume diplomacy, the participants also explored why and how North Korea is strengthening ties with fellow authoritarian regimes, as well as ways for Western countries to re-engage with Pyongyang.
The workshop took place on 15 October. King’s, UK-based and Korean experts and officials from the UK Government and the embassies of Japan and the Republic of Korea participated in the discussion.
Professor Ramon Pacheco Pardo, who organised the event, said: “With pro-engagement presidents in South Korea and the United States, North Korea may want to resume dialogue with the two countries. The King’s Korea Initiative aims to become a place for scholars and policy-makers to discuss the security of the Korean Peninsula.”
Find more about the King’s Korea Initiative here.
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Head of the Department of European & International Studies and Professor of International Relations