South Korea and Data Governance

On December 1, 2020, NBR convened a roundtable entitled “Data Governance in the 5G Era: What Role for South Korea in Leading the Way?” The event discussed South Korean approaches to data governance, prospects for bolstering international coordination, and the country’s potential international leadership in developing 5G networks.

Clara Gillispie (NBR), June Park (George Washington University), and Wonho Yeon (Korea Institute for International Economic Policy) delivered expert presentations, followed by a lively debate on topics ranging from data privacy and digital contract tracing to the challenge posed by Huawei’s role in the expansion of global 5G networks. NBR is grateful for the support of the Korea Foundation for this event.

Speaker Bios

Clara Gillispie is an International Visiting Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and Senior Advisor to the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). She also serves as the official U.S. delegate to the Energy Research Institute Network, an East Asia Summit-linked network whose inputs are designed to inform the formal East Asia Summit process. Ms. Gillispie’s subject-matter expertise covers topics ranging from technology policymaking to energy security to geopolitical trends in the Asia-Pacific. She is the author of numerous policy essays and reports, including “South Korea’s Digital Healthcare Conundrum” (forthcoming), “Networked Benefits: Realizing the Potential of 5G in South Korea” (2020), “U.S.-Australia Energy Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific” (2020), and “How Asia’s Auto Boom Shapes Its Energy Security Strategies” (co-authored with Laura Schwartz, 2019).

June Park is a political economist specializing in U.S. foreign economic policymaking on export-oriented countries of Northeast Asia (China, Japan, and South Korea). Dr. Park is an East Asia Voices Initiative Fellow of the East Asia National Resource Center at the Elliot School of International Affairs at the George Washington University for the 2020–21 academic year. She was the recipient of the Next Generation Researcher Grant (2019–20) of the National Research Foundation of Korea for her book manuscript Trade Wars & Currency Conflict: China, South Korea and Japan’s Responses to U.S. Pressures since the Global Financial Crisis.

Wonho Yeon is an Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). He received an MA in international relations with concentrations in both Korea and Japan Studies from UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and a PhD in Economics from Stony Brook University. Dr. Yeon’s current research interests include U.S.-China trade conflict, U.S.-China technological rivalry, and international relations in Northeast Asia.