Olli Heinonen is a Distinguished Fellow with the 38 North/Korea program. He was Senior Advisor on Science and Nonproliferation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, DC from 2015 to January 2020. From 2010 to July 2017, he was a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Before joining the Belfer Center, Heinonen served for 27 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. He was the deputy director general of the IAEA, and head of its Department of Safeguards. Prior to that, he was director at the Agency’s various operational divisions, and an inspector, including at the IAEA’s overseas office in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining the IAEA, Heinonen was a senior research officer at the Technical Research Centre of Finland Reactor Laboratory, in charge of research and development related to nuclear waste solidification and disposal. 

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38 North: News and Analysis on North Korea