Dr. Choong-Koo Lee is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Council on International Law, Order, and Security (CILOS). At the Council, his work focuses on nuclear nonproliferation, the Korean Peninsula, and Asian security, with particular attention to North Korea's nuclear program and the peninsula's place in US-China strategic competition, as well as the security implications of emerging military technology.

He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Policy Studies, Korea University. His research has focuses on inter-Korean relations and North Korea’s nuclear program, and has expanded his work to include U.S.-China relations and the impact of emerging technologies on security and defense. Dr. Lee is a Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) where he conducts policy research for the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea.

He previously served as a Visiting Fellow at the National Defense University in Washington D.C. and at the Renmin University of China in Beijing. And Dr. Lee also served as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, where he dealt with various policy issues, including North Korea’s nuclear development, inter-Korean relations, the establishment of the North Korea Refugee Foundation, and the ROK-US and ROK-EU free trade agreements.

He holds a BA, MA, and PhD in international relations from Seoul National University, where his theses examined North Korea’s foreign and nuclear policies. His work has appeared in War on the Rocks, The Pacific Review, The Korean Journal of International Studies, The Korean Journal of Defense Analyses, and publications by KIDA, EAI, KDI, and ISDP.