Dr. Jin-Goo CHO is an assistant professor and Director of the Japan Center at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES), Kyungnam University. Before joining IFES, he was a policy assistant at the National Unification Advisory Council, which is a presidential administrative organization. He was also a research professor at Korea University’s Peace & Democracy Institute (PDI). He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea. As an academic, his research focuses primarily on Northeast Asian international relations, comparative studies between the ROK-U.S. and U.S.-Japan alliances, and relations between North and South Korea and Japan. Recently, he has been interested in reconciliation and cooperation among East Asia countries. He received his Ph.D. in international politics from the University of Tokyo, an M.A. in international relations from the University of Shizuoka, Japan, and a B.A. from Korea University in Sociology, ROK.).