Prof. Keylor on Disappearance of North Korean Leader
Prof. William Keylor of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University was asked by the Los Angeles Times (October 6, 2014) to comment on the mysterious disappearance of mysterious North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.
Historian and International Relations expoert, Prof. Keylor, is quoted in the LA Times report as pointing out:
…that North Korea is “the most opaque society and government in the world, so everything is based on speculation.” He acknowledged, though, that there has been “evidence of rivalry and conflict within the ruling elite,” and Kim’s absence has fueled the rumor mill.
Hwang’s unexpected visit to South Korea after months of diplomatic deep freeze between the Koreas might have been an overture at Kim’s behest to put his neighbors’ fears to rest over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons pursuit, Keylor said. He noted the cyclical nature of relations on the peninsula that vacillate between hostility and gestures of conciliation.
Read full story in the LA Times here.
Prof. Keylor of the Pardee School of Global Studies at BU has been a Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He was elected to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has been named Chevalier de L’Ordre National du M érite by the French government, has served as the president of the Society for French Historical Studies.