Ramon Pacheco Pardo

Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King's College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Education and career
Pacheco Pardo received his PhD in International Relations from LSE. He teaches at King's College London and became KF-VUB Korea Chair in October 2017. He was editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies in 2009–10. Pacheco Pardo has testified on North Korea before the European Parliament. In 2021 he was appointed Adjunct Fellow at CSIS.

Publications
Pacheco Pardo has written peer-reviewed articles, chapters and op-eds on North Korea's foreign relations and domestic affairs, South Korea's foreign policy and domestic affairs, inter-Korean relations and EU-Asia relations. Pacheco Pardo is the author of "North Korea-US Relations Under Kim Jong Il: The Quest for Normalization?", where he argues that North Korea's main foreign policy goal is to normalize diplomatic relations with the United States to boost its security and launch economic reform. It hast been among the top-selling North Korea books in South Korea. He has advocated engagement with North Korea to improve the situation in the Korean Peninsula.

He is the author of "Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop", a history of South Korea since its foundation in 1948 to the 2022 presidential election. The book analyses the political, economic, social and cultural evolution of the country over the decades. The book was reviewed in Chosun Ilbo, Financial Times, The Korea Herald or The New Statesman. The book has been translated into Korean, receiving positive reviews from Dong-A Ilbo, Hankook Gyeongje or JoongAng Ilbo.

Pacheco Pardo is also co-author of "Korea: A New History of South & North" together with Victor Cha. The book is a history of Korea and the two separate Koreas from the late 19th century to the 2020s.

In the book "South Korea's Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny", Pacheco Pardo argues that South Korea has a well-defined grand strategy dating back to its transition to democracy in 1987-88. He argues that South Korea's top priority is to be able to have independence of action by being able to make is own foreign policy and security decisions without external influence.

Books


 * North Korea-US Relations under Kim Jong Il: The Quest for Normalization, Routledge, 2014
 * North Korea-US Relations from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un, 2nd ed, Routledge, 2019
 * Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop, Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2022
 * Korea: A New History of South & North, Yale University Press, 2023
 * South Korea's Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny, 2023
 * North Korea: Survival of a Political Dynasty, Agenda Publishing, 2024