Jim Hoare is Research Counsellor and Head of North Asia and Pacific Research Group at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). He served in the British Embassies in Seoul (1981-1985), Beijing (1988-1991) and Pyongyang (2001-2002), and is the author of a number of articles and reviews on China, Japan and the two Koreas. His books include Japan's Treaty Ports and Foreign Settlements (Japan Library, 1994), Embassies in the East: The Story of the British and Their Embassies in China, Japan and Korea from 1859 to the Present (Curzon Press, 1999), and with his wife Susan Pares North Korea in the 21st Century: An Interpretive Guide (Global Oriental, 2005) and Korea: The Past and the Present (Global Oriental, 2011). Dr. J.E. Hoare is a Honorary Research Associate, SOAS University of London, and an Associate Fellow in the Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House, London (RIIA).