Byong-Yeon Kim is a Professor in the Department of Economics, Seoul National University. He was the recipient of the T. S. Ashton Prize from the Economic History Society of the UK, the Chungram Award from the Korean Economic Association, and Distinguished Researcher in Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Research Foundation of Korea. He is a member of the executive committee of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies, and a regular columnist on North Korean issues in the Korea Joongang Daily newspaper.