North Korea Browbeatings: A Readout on the Recent Politburo Meeting in Pyongyang 20 Feb 201521 Feb 2015 A recent meeting in Pyongyang got a great deal of attention, for mostly the wrong reasons. New media upstart Vox led its North Korea coverage for the week with what could be…
China… On Translation: North Korea in the Sinophone Gaze 20 Oct 201421 Oct 2014 Chinese writing about North Korea is peculiar. And perhaps it ought to be. Surely, well-informed insights and even genuinely insightful speculations ought to be welcomed to the table with alacrity,…
Borderlands… Three Questions on Dandong and Chinese-North Korean Economic Relations 19 Oct 201419 Oct 2014 As the third China-North Korea Trade Fair continues, a few questions (modified from those posed by a stalwart reporter from a northern European news magazine roaming Liaoning province) and tentative…
North Korea… On the Inoki Visit to North Korea 4 Sep 2014 Given the amount of public interest in the just-concluded visit of Japanese and American wrestlers to Pyongyang, led by lawmaker (and former wrestling star) Kanji Inoki, I thought I might…
Borderlands… Stephan Haggard’s Comment on Sinuiju SEZs 1 Aug 2014 Stephan Haggard is frequently described as one of the top North Korea analysts in the United States; his breadth of interest, range of expertise, and command of massive amounts of…
North Korean border region… Abusive Convenience: Chinese-North Korean Relations 27 Jun 2014 In the lengthening aftermath of the Jang Song-taek execution, writers who are fond of metaphors for Chinese-North Korean relations can take heart. The bilateral relationship which had been “like lips…
North Korea Pyongyang Machiavelli: All of Kim’s Men 29 Jun 201330 Jun 2013 [This essay was originally published at The Diplomat on April 17, 2013.] The man at the helm in North Korea today is an accident of history, surrounded by vestigial assertions of…
Cultural Politics… Lux Sinica: China’s Civilizing Influence in North Korea 17 Jun 201117 Jun 2011 It takes more than a few days, or perhaps a few weeks, to sift through all the reports, speculation, and rumors surrounding Kim Jong Il’s “new deal” with China. At…
American Foreign Policy… The News from North Korea: Relations with China, Aerial Drone Denunciations, Green Totalitarianism, and the Middle East 19 May 2011 Since the emergence of putative successor Kim Jong Eun into the public eye, the North Korean news media -- specifically the Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA -- has taken…
North Korea… China-North Korea Succession Tiff? 23 Feb 201024 Feb 2010 The Asahi Shimbun again stirs the pot with a compelling report on Sino-North Korean relations, making some new assertions that China opposed North Korea's hereditary system of succession recently and…
Adam Cathcart 