Cornell's East Asia Program will host "Limits of the 'Lips and Teeth' Alliance: The Antinomies of the Chinese-North Korean Relationship," a two-day international conference, Sept. 29-30, on the Cornell campus.

Two sessions of the conference are free and open to the public:

• The screening of "Socialist North Korea Under the Leadership of Kims" at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, in 700 Clark Hall; and
• A roundtable discussion on "The North Korea Nuclear Crisis: Implications for China and the United States," 4:30-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, in 374 Rockefeller Hall.

Conference participants include top scholars from China, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia, and from Cornell and other American universities. Many will present research based on previously unknown or less-used primary sources from China and from the now defunct Communist regimes in the Soviet Union and East Germany.

The Korean Peninsula has been a focal point of international tension and crises throughout the Cold War and in the post-Cold War age. As a main ally of the North Korean regime in the past half-century, China has been deeply involved in Korean affairs. But the difficult issue of how to define Beijing's relations with Pyongyang is not only an important scholarly question, but also has ramifications for managing contemporary political concerns. The conference will bring together leading scholars from all over the world to address these issues.

For more information, contact Gina Cesari, Cornell East Asia Program, ggc9@cornell.edu, (607) 255-8343.