Dr. Eric J. Ballbach is a Korea Foundation-SWP Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik) in Berlin. He previously served as director of the Research Unit “North Korea and International Security” at Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute of Korean Studies. His research focuses on North and South Korean foreign and security policies, EU-Korea relations, multilateralism and institution-building in East Asia, and identity politics on the Korean peninsula, and has been published in national and international journals and edited volumes. Dr. Ballbach participates in several informal Track 1.5 dialogues involving high-ranking officials from the DPRK.