A West Virginia University professor is available to speak on the recent death of Kim Jong Il, dictator of North Korea, who is reported to have died Saturday, Dec. 17, at the age of 69.

Professor Hong Nak Kim teaches comparative politics with an emphasis on East Asia in the Department of Political Science at WVU. Kim is also from North Korea.

Kim was the editor of East Asia Review and is currently editor of the International Journal of Korean Studies. He has coedited six books, including Korean Reunification: New Perspectives and Approaches and North Korea: the Politics of Regime Survival, and has authored Japanese-Korean Relations in the 1990s.

Kim was named Outstanding Researcher in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and was a Fulbright visiting professor at Tokyo’s Keio University and Seoul National University. Since 2004, he has served as president of the International Council on Korean Studies in Washington, D.C.

He can be reached by phone at 304-293-3811, ext. 5278. His e-mail address is hongkim@wvu.edu.

-WVU-

dm/12/20/11

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