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Past Event
Seminar

Understanding North Korea: Strategic Goals, Tactical Actions

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

The Korea Project invites members of the Harvard community to join us for an off-the-record event with Sydney Seiler, the National Intelligence Officer for North Korea. This Analytic Tradecraft Series event will focus on Seiler's analytic methodologies for understanding North Korea within the broad context of its worldview, identity, and strategic goals, and how he applies these methodologies to gain insights into the way in which North Korea supports such goals.

RSVPs are required for this in-person event open only to members of the Harvard community. Light refreshments will be served.

This event is co-sponsored by the Korea Project and the Korea Institute.

Date: Time: - Location: Taubman Building - Allison Dining Room, 5th Floor
A television screen shows a North Korean missile launch.

About

Speaker: Mr. Sydney Seiler (National Intelligence Office for North Korea, Office of the Director of National Intelligence)

Moderator: Dr. John Park (Director, Korea Project, Harvard Kennedy School)

Biography:

Sydney Seiler is the National Intelligence Officer for North Korea. In this role, he oversees the production of coordinated intelligence community strategic analysis on North Korea while serving as the DNI’s senior subject matter expert on North Korea, supporting the DNI's role as the principal intelligence adviser to the President. He assumed the NIO role after having served as the Senior Defense Intelligence Expert for North Korea at U.S. Forces Korea, where he was the principal advisor and senior expert on Korean Peninsula security issues to the Commander and the broader Defense Intelligence Enterprise.

From 2014 to 2015, Mr. Seiler served as the U.S. Special Envoy for the Six Party Talks, where he coordinated U.S. diplomacy and policy on the DPRK, led negotiations with North Korea, and conducted day-to-day engagement with Six-Party and other international partners. Before that he served as the Director for Korea on the National Security Council Staff from April 2011 to August 2014, advising the President and senior White House officials on Korea issues while serving as the senior White House representative in negotiations with North Korea. Mr. Seiler participated in numerous Six-Party Talks between 2003 and 2005, and played a central role as the IC lead in the Illicit Activities Initiative targeting North Korea.

With over 40 years dedicated to Korean peninsula security issues, Mr. Seiler has had a variety of assignments across the intelligence community to include the DNI National Intelligence Manager for North Korea, the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Analysis, CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and CIA’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service. He also served with the National Security Agency and the Defense Attaché Office, Seoul.

Mr. Seiler, a member of the Senior National Intelligence Service since 2006, is a native-level speaker of Korean, received his Master of Arts degree in Korean Studies from Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies, and is a graduate of the Korean language programs of the Defense Language Institute and Yonsei University. He is the author of the book, Kim Il Song 1941-1948: The Creation of a Legend, the Building of a Regime, and is a recipient of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal, and the ROK Order of National Security Merit Cheonsu Medal.

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