28 November 2008

South Korean Ambassador Speaks

H E Chun Young-woo, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) will be visiting the University of Sheffield on 4 December 2008. He will be giving an open lecture to University students and staff on ‘The Six-Party Talks: The Denuclearisation of North Korea and the Future of the Korean Peninsula’.

Ambassador Chun, who recently arrived in the UK, was most recently the chief negotiator for South Korea at the Six Party Talks held in Beijing. He is an excellent speaker and has a number of 'on-the-scene' observations about these talks which are crucial for peace on the Korean peninsula.

The University of Sheffield has long-established ties with the Republic of Korea and is recognised as being one of the leading teaching and research centres in Europe on the academic subject area of Korean Studies. Korean Studies was established at Sheffield in 1979 when Korean language was first taught. The Centre for Korean Studies, part of the School of East Asian Studies, was established in 1988 and specialises in the language, history, economics and business of Korea.

Sheffield's exchange partner university in Korea is Yonsei University. Undergraduate students doing a degree programme in Korean Studies spend their entire second year of university at the Korean Language Institute at Yonsei. Sheffield has welcomed exchange students from Yonsei at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level.