Dr. Alexander Zhebin is Director of the Center for Korean Studies (CKS) of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies (IFES) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1975. He has spent 12 years in North Korea as a journalist and a diplomat. 

He joined IFES in 1992 and since then participated in various international seminars on Korean affairs at home and abroad. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the IFES in 1998. Dr. Zhebin has been the Director of CKS since 2004. His fields of research include political developments in the DPRK, Russia-North Korea relations, security situation, and nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula. Dr. Zhebin authored three books, chapters in several collective works, and numerous articles on Korean affairs in academic journals and newspapers at home and abroad.