Kim Kyung-won

Kim Kyung-won fled North Korea with his brother during the Korean War. After schooling in Seoul he studied at Williams College and Harvard, earning a doctorate in political science in 1963. He taught in Canada and the United States before returning to Korea University. President Park Chung-hee recruited him as an adviser in 1975; he subsequently served as chief of staff under Chun Doo-hwan and as ambassador to the United Nations and the United States. ^{1, 2}

In a later appraisal, former prime minister Lee Hong-koo reported that Kim had urged clemency for Kim Dae-jung and opposed American endorsement of a military crackdown on the 1987 democracy movement. Kim declined to write a memoir of his government service. ¹

After leaving office, Kim led the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and continued working on alliance and nuclear policy. Scott Snyder recalled projects that Kim co-led with Robert Scalapino, including a recommendation to remove American tactical nuclear weapons before their withdrawal in 1991. Kim and Nicholas Platt also co-chaired the Council on Foreign Relations task force that examined the 1994 US–North Korean nuclear agreement in its 1995 report, Success or Sellout? ²

Kim directed the Institute of Social Sciences and founded the journal Sasang. A devoted listener to Wagner, he also led the Korea Wagner Association. Parkinson's disease curtailed his activities in his later years; he died in 2012. ^{1, 2}