Members of this year's executive committee have been working hard to organize a conference on economic integration between the North Korea and the South Korea. We are happy to announce the 1999 KAEA conference. The theme of the conference is an economic cooperation and eventual economic integration of the two Koreas.

The dates for the conference are September 16 (Thursday) and September 17 (Friday). We are in the process of selecting a top-class hotel in Washington for the conference.

We are setting aside a number of slots for presentation and discussion by KAEA members. Those of you who wish to present a paper should send Dr. Yesook Merrill [merrilly@gao.gov] by April 15 (a) an abstract of your paper and (b) an abbreviated resume. We need your completed papers as soon as possible; certainly no later than the end of July. If we have more papers than we can accommodate, we may ask some of you to participate as discussants. Although we cannot promise to accommodate all of you who wish to participate, we will do our best. Participation is limited to paid members of KAEA.

Participating organizations other than the host KAEA are expected to include the Korean Economic Association, KDI, KDI Graduate School of International Studies, KERI, Korean Electric Power Company, U.S. State Department, U.S. Congress, North Korea, and more. Members of the Korean Economic Association in Korea are encouraged to contact the KEA's executive committee for participation.

We plan to provide free hotel rooms and meals as well as a limited amount of travel subsidy for all KAEA program participants. All rooms will have a double occupancy. To the extent possible, one KAEA member will be paired with one scholar from Korea in each room so that we can improve our contact with Korea. Single occupancy will not be subsidized. For further questions on the conference, please contact Dr. Merrill or me.

The East-West Center (Honolulu, Hawaii) is managing the POSCO Visiting Fellowship Program. It is sponsored by the Pohang Iron and Steel Company, Ltd.(POSCO), and is intended to promote understanding and cooperation among the nations in the Asia-Pacific region, by supporting academic research on important issues in the region. Currently, four major issues are emphasized: Asian Financial Crisis and Future Financial Architecture; Evolving Security Structure in East Asia; Economic Cooperation in Northeast Asia; and South-North Korean Relations. We are flexible about the research topics for individual fellows. We will provide each fellow with one round trip to Honolulu, a modest amount of stipend, and an honorarium for a seminar presentation of his/her research at the Center. Each fellow is required to stay at the Center for at least a week and make a presentation. He/she is also required to submit a research paper (25-50 pages) during the fellowship period.

Four fellowships are available for this summer. Unfortunately, we can select only one from Korean-American scholars at this time. We may be able to increase the number next year (beginning from October 1, 1999) as we will invite about total ten fellows in that year. While we invite the members of Korea-America Economic Association to apply, we are also earnestly asking them to spread words on this fellowship program to as many American colleagues as possible.

Any interested person is encouraged to contact Dr. Choong Nam Kim at the Center (email: kimcn@ewc.hawaii.edu, Phone:808-944-7372) or Professor Kwang Soo Cheong at the University of Hawaii (email: kscheong@hawaii.edu, Phone: 808-956-7653).