CHOI Yong Hwan is currently serving as Vice President of the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) and is active as a policy adviser to the National Security Office of the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Unification, as well as a standing member of the National Unification Advisory Council. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Sogang University in 2003, and his main research interests include North Korea’s foreign policy, inter-Korean relations, and security on the Korean Peninsula. His major publications include “North Korea's New Leadership and Diplomacy: Legacy and Challenges of the Kim Jong Il Era,” Journal of Peace and Unification, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 2012); Marketization in North Korea and the Birth of a Kleptocratic State (Suwon: Gyeonggi Research Institute, 2016); North Korean Nuclear Negotiation Strategy in Kim Jong-un Era (INSS, 2018); Issues and Challenges to Security Environment in East Asia (co-authored, INSS, 2019); Security Issues and Tasks of the South Korea: Under the DPRK Nuclear Threat (co-authored, INSS, 2020); The Atlantic Powers’ Indo-Pacific Strategy and Implication for South Korea’s Geostrategic Initiative (co-authored, INSS, 2022); and The Revisionist State, D.P.R. Korea (co-authored, Seoul: Pakyoungsa, 2024).