born in 1939 in Koksung, South Cholla Province, Korea, received his B.A. from Seoul National University, M. A. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. He served in the Korean Army as a student draftee.
Currently Senior Adviser of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation, he was a distinguished professor at Korea University, the Republic of Korea’s Ambassador to the United States, and a member of the Korean National Assembly. Previously, he was professor at the Graduate School of Peace Studies at Kyunghee University, and professor and a graduate faculty member of the University of Kentucky.
He authored several books in Korean and English, including《한국정부론: 역대정권 고위직행정엘리트 연구, 1948-1993》On the Government of the Republic of Korea: A Study of Top Administrative Elites from 1948 to 1993,《북한정치연구》A Study of North Korean Politics, Korea and Two Regimes: Kim Il Sung and Park Chung Hee, and The North
and the South Korean Political Systems: A Comparative Analysis.