PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Donghyun Woo

Also known as 우동현, 禹東賢

Donghyun Woo is a historian whose work applies computational text analysis and language-model evaluation to Korean and North Korean history. He studied Korean history at Seoul National University, completed a Ph.D. in Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at GIST before joining KAIST. His articles examined North Korea’s early nuclear program and the decline of hunting under socialist wildlife policies; his 2026 newspaper study applied dynamic word embeddings to 2.7 million Chinese and Korean articles. In October 2026, he coauthored LENS, a human-validated benchmark that tests LLMs on North Korean language, society, and knowledge. Since 2023, he is an assistant professor at KAIST and leads the Korean History Society’s Digital History Research Unit; from 2026, he holds adjunct appointments at KAIST’s AI Philosophy Research Center, Graduate School of Data Science, and Department of AX.

Now at
KAIST

Timeline

  1. 2007–2016

    Korean history at SNU

    He studies Korean history at Seoul National University from 2007 to 2016, earning a B.A. in 2013 and an M.A. in 2016.

  2. 2017–2022

    A UCLA PhD

    At UCLA, he studies Asian Languages and Cultures focused on Korean history from 2017 to 2022 and completes a Ph.D. under adviser Namhee Lee. In 2017, he also completes intensive language training at Tomsk Polytechnic University.

  3. 2022–2023

    Postdoctoral research at GIST

    From 2022 to 2023, he works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in Gwangju, Korea.

  4. 2023

    North Korea’s nuclear origins

    In 2023, he publishes “The Peaceful Origins of North Korea’s Nuclear Programme in the Cold War Period, 1945–1965” in The Historical Journal. The article argues that economic considerations shape North Korea’s pursuit of atomic energy from 1945 to 1965.

  5. 2025

    Hunting in North Korea

    In 2025, he publishes “Catching Weasels in Silent Mountains,” a history of hunting in North Korea from the 1940s to the 1960s. The article traces how the state’s attempts to classify and exploit animals for socialism meet local understandings of wildlife and a tacit compromise with local populations.

  6. June 2026

    Cold War newspaper embeddings

    In June 2026, he coauthors a study with Byungjun Kim and Jonghyun Jee using dynamic word embeddings on 2.7 million articles from Chinese-language Renmin Ribao and Korean-language Chosun Ilbo, spanning 1946 to 1995. It traces semantic shifts around political entities, including changing views of the Soviet Union.

  7. October 2026

    A benchmark for North Korean LLMs

    In October 2026, he coauthors “North or South? Diagnosing LLMs' Understanding of North Korean Language, Society, and Knowledge,” posted to arXiv. The paper introduces LENS, a human-validated benchmark of 1,765 questions testing linguistic robustness, sociocultural perspective alignment, and domain-specific knowledge.

  8. 2026

    Assistant professor at KAIST

    Since 2023, he is an assistant professor in KAIST’s School of Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences and the Korean History Society’s inaugural Digital History Research Unit leader. From 2026, he holds adjunct appointments at KAIST’s Artificial Intelligence Philosophy Research Center, Graduate School of Data Science, and Department of AX.

Career

  1. Since 2023KAISTAssistant Professor, Adjunct
  2. 2022–2023Gwangju Institute of Science and TechnologyPostdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 2022University of California, Los AngelesPh.D.
  2. 2016Seoul National UniversityB.A. and M.A.

From the biography.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes KAIST. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes KAIST. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes KAIST. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes KAIST. We estimate how 26,439 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs, nonprofits and government research centers, with decade counts, net flows and the top paths.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Donghyun Woo yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. The THEN Lab at KAIST - People sites.google.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Donghyun Woo - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology pure.kaist.ac.kr. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. The Peaceful Origins of North Korea's Nuclear Programme in the Cold War Period, 1945–1965 | The Historical Journal | Cambridge Core cambridge.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Catching Weasels in Silent Mountains: A Multispecies History of Hunting in North Korea from the 1940s to the 1960s - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology pure.kaist.ac.kr. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Mapping the semantic transformations of major powers in Cold War East Asia: a word embedding approach using Chinese and Korean newspapers (1946–95) - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology pure.kaist.ac.kr. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. [2610.15282] North or South? Diagnosing LLMs' Understanding of North Korean Language, Society, and Knowledge arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.