Korea Initiative Roundtable featuring Ms. Merrily presenting, "Dealing with North Korea’s Culture of Paranoia".

Lecture and Lunch is free and open to the public. RSVP must be received by 10 AM on November 16.

Merrily Baird is an independent researcher based in Atlanta. Considered to be a leading authority on Kim Jong Il in the US, Ms. Baird was a specialist on Korea and Japan for the Central Intelligence Agency with 27 years in US government service. Her specialties include leadership analysis, North Korea, and management of nuclear weapons programs. Among her assignments, she served as Chief of the Japan-Korea Section at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department; as a Proliferation Specialist at the National Intelligence Council; and as attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo. Ms. Baird is the recipient of the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement for work on North Korea and Counterproliferation.

She is an expert on Japanese art and the author of Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design. Her most recent publication is a chapter on North Korea in Know Thy Enemy, published by the Air War College in 2003. She is currently writing a book, tentatively titled, "North Korea Agonistes," on the political and strategic challenges North Korea faces as a new succession nears.