“North Korean spies are one of the hardest intelligence targets, and their tradecraft is honed by decades of training.”
-Dr. Amanda Won
Dr. Amanda Won, who is currently serving as the director of IWP’s China/Asia Program, is teaching a new two-credit course this spring on the Theory and Practice of North Korean Espionage (IWP 703). It will begin on March 1st.
This course will focus on the activities, methodologies, and strategies of the North Korean Intelligence Service (NKIS) and its critical role in promoting the domestic and foreign policy objectives of what is arguably the most restrictive and dictatorial regime on earth. This course aims to educate future leaders of American foreign policy and national security to better understand North Korea as the hardest intelligence target and the uniqueness of its clandestine operations and revolutionary strategies.
Dr. Won received a Doctor of Statecraft and National Security (DSNS) degree from IWP in 2022, and she is the founder of IWP’s Asia Initiative Lecture Series (AILS) through which diverse scholar-practitioners have presented their expertise on Asia.
Amanda holds an M.P.S. in Arts and Cultural Management from the Pratt Institute in New York and an M.A. in Government (with a specialization in National Security Studies) from Johns Hopkins University. Her professional experience includes having worked in both the NGO and government sectors, serving as a legislative assistant at the New York City Council and as a Diplomatic & Consular Affairs and Partnership intern at the New York City Mayor’s Office for International Affairs. She has also worked at the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) where she was a contributor to that organization’s publication: “The Parallel Gulag: North Korea’s “An-Jeon-Bu” Prison Camps.”
She has done extensive research on North Korean espionage. Her work has been published in AFIO’s Intelligencer, and she has spoken on this topic at events sponsored by the National Intelligence University, the USACAPOC, Ft. Bragg, the International Association for Intelligence Education, and IWP.