RSVP
The National Committee on North Korea (NCNK) and the US-Asia Institute invite you to join us for a special in-person briefing featuring Michael Schiffer, former Senior Advisor & Counselor, Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Keith Luse, President of NCNK, will serve as moderator.
This event will focus on Michael's recent NCNK report "The Role and Authorities of the Executive Branch and Congress for the Implementation of a Potential North Korea Agreement", which highlights the potential legal, political, diplomatic, and operational considerations for future US-DPRK policy.
This event will be held Thursday, February 19th from 2PM-3PM in the Rayburn House Office Building Room 2045. Light refreshments will be provided.
If you would like to attend, we kindly request that you RSVP HERE.
About the Speaker
Michael Schiffer (LinkedIn) served as the Assistant Administrator of the USAID Bureau for Asia from 2022 to 2025. Prior to that, he was senior advisor and counselor on the Democratic Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2009 to 2012, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia. Before joining the Department of Defense he was a program officer at the Stanley Foundation, a Council on Foreign Relations Hitachi International Affairs Fellow, and worked on the staff of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), including as her national security adviser and Legislative Director. Prior to that, he was Director of International Security Programs at New York University’s Center for War, Peace, and the News Media and was co-manager of the Poipu Bed and Breakfast Inn in Poipu, Kauai.
About the Moderator
Keith Luse is the President of the National Committee on North Korea. Previously, Luse was the Senior East Asia Policy Advisor for Chairman and later Ranking Member Senator Richard G. Lugar at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2003 until 2013. Luse also served as Staff Director for Mr. Lugar at the Senate Agriculture Committee from 1999 through 2002, where the Senator also served as Chairman and later Ranking Member. While at the Senate Agriculture Committee, Luse made the first of eventually five trips to North Korea. Mr. Luse joined Senator Lugar’s Indiana Office in 1978 and was appointed State Director in 1982. In the 1990’s while in the private sector, Luse traveled throughout East Asia for eight years, conducting research for U.S. businesses.
In addition to assisting Senator Lugar at the Foreign Relations Committee on legislative initiatives, Luse directed or participated in several oversight projects and investigations. They included the integrity of the U.S. - funded humanitarian assistance distribution process inside North Korea; the murder of Americans in Papua, Indonesia; corruption and transparency challenges at The Asia Development Bank and The World Bank, and an evaluation of the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance to countries in East Asia with an emphasis on Cambodia and Indonesia. From 1989 to 1991 he was Chairman of the Indiana Republican Party.
Luse has traveled extensively in East Asia including five visits to North Korea, and has participated in numerous Track 1.5 and Track 2 sessions about North Korea or with North Korean officials outside of their country. Luse’s Bachelor of Arts degree in political science is from Indiana University. His graduate certificate in public management and additional graduate studies was obtained at Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis.