Education:

Ph.D., The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University 1998

Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University 1994

B.A. in American and British Literature, New College, Sarasota, FL 1991

Career:

Principal Fellow, The Sejong Institute

Member of the Board, The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Member of the Editorial Board, Asia Policy, the scholarly journal of the National Bureau of Asian Research

Former:

Wilson Center International Competition Fellow, September 2022 to August 2023; Wilson Global Fellow, August 2024 to April 2025

Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies and Assistant Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 2012-2023

Faculty Associate at the U.S.-Japan Program, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 2019-2023

Inaugural National Asia Research Program Research Fellow, The National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2010-2012

Associate in Research, Korea Institute, Harvard University, 1999-2015

Visiting Professor, ROK Ministry of Unification, September-October, 2014

Visiting Research Fellow, Northeast Asia History Foundation, 2014

Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Politics, The Fletcher School, Fall 2007-November 2011

Visiting Professor of Korean Studies, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea, Summer 2007

Visiting Professor, Seoul National University, Summer, 2012-2015

Kim Koo Research Associate, Kim Koo Forum on U.S.-Korea Relations, Korea Institute, Harvard University, 2005-2006

Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Politics, The Fletcher School, 1998-2005

Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Tufts University, 2000-2005

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Government, Bowdoin College, Spring 2000

The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, North Korea’s Most Powerful Woman (London: MacMillan, 2023), published in the U.S. as The Sister: North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World (New York: PublicAffairs, 2023). The book has gained lavish praise from the Times Literary Supplement, The Economist, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Australian, Cipher Brief, Kirkus, Shelf Awareness, etc., and a starred review from Booklist. It has been strongly endorsed as book blurbs by over 20 top North Korea experts. To date, eleven translation rights, including Ukrainian, have been sold. The Sister has been selected as one of “Best Books of 2023” by several outlets. Pan MacMillan named The Sister among “50 best autobiographies and biographies of all time”: <https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/general/best-autobiographies-biographies-memoirs>.​

“Kim Yo Jong, the World’s First Nuclear Despotess,” Caravanserai, The Royal Institute of Asian Affairs, April 1, 2025 (accessible here)

“Who’s not to Blame in the South Korea-Japan Spat?” Origins, Ohio State University, August 2020

“Countering North Korea’s Carrot-and-Stick Policy,” lead article in William H. Overholt, ed., North Korea: Peace or War? (Cambridge: Mossavar-Rahmani Center, Harvard University, 2019)

“Seoul’s Supporting Role in North Korea’s Sanctions-Busting Scheme,” Asia Policy (13.3, July 2018)

“Forgotten Borders: Japan’s Maritime Operations in the Korean War and Implications for North Korea,” in Geoffrey F. Gresh, ed., Eurasia’s Maritime Rise and Global Security: From the Indian Ocean to Pacific Asia and the Arctic (Palgrave, 2018)

"Getting Tough on North Korea: How to Hit Pyongyang Where it Hurts,” in the May/June 2017 issue of Foreign Affairs

"The Seoul-Beijing-Tokyo Triangle: Terra-Centric Nordpolitik vs. Oceanic Realpolitik," in Gilbert Rozman, ed., Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies: Asia’s Slippery Slope, Triangular Tensions, Identity Gaps, Conflicting Regionalism, and Diplomatic Impasse toward North Korea (Korea Economic Institute of America Press, 2014), 23-40.

“North Korea’s Revolutionary Unification Policy,” International Journal of Korean Studies, Vol. XIX, No. 2 Fall/Winter 2014

"The Seoul-Beijing-Tokyo Triangle: Terra-Centric Nordpolitik vs. Oceanic Realpolitik," Korea Economic Institute of America Press and Palgrave MacMillan (Korea Economic Institute of America Press, Summer 2014)

“North Korean Exceptionalism and South Korean Conventionalism: Prospects for a Reverse Formulation?” Asia Policy 15, The National Bureau of Asian Research, January 2013 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sung-Yoon_Lee_bibliography