Currently an Endowed Visiting Professor in the Department of Military Studies at Kyungnam University, he serves as a policy advisor to the National Security Office of the Blue House and the Ministry of National Defense, as well as a member of the Standing Committee of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council. He formerly served as the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Osaka and has held positions as President of the Korean Association of North Korean Studies and Vice President of the Korean Association of International Studies. He has been honored with the Moran Medal of the Order of Civil Merit and a Commendation from the Minister of Unification. After graduating from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Seoul National University's College of Engineering, he received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Graduate School of Sungkyunkwan University. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo and Keio University in Japan, and the China Foreign Affairs University. His specialized research areas include the ROK-U.S. alliance, Japanese security, North Korean military affairs, nuclear strategy, and the Korean Peninsula peace regime.