Change in North Korea as Kim Jong-un remodels Fortress Juche
The colossal ideological fortress of Juche has stood firm for a long time as the cornerstone of North Korea's pursuit of revolution and defense against...
Forced repatriation: Accountability
The last of our four-part series on the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors in China. For parts one, two, and three, see here, here...
By honoring defectors is South Korea unintentionally erecting a barrier to integration?
When I started English lessons again when I was 20, the first topic in the textbook was St. Patrick's Day in America. This celebration of...
Kim Jong-un rejects unification out of fear of South Korea
Like a wizard, Kim Jong-un waved his magic wand on March 23 and an entire organization vanished. The Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea,...
Why North Korean news media don’t report news
One day in Pyongyang, in the summer of 1993, I was walking along Tongil Street in the city’s Rangrang district, heading for a bus stop,...
Shouldn’t Kim Ju-ae be in school?
As Kim Jong-un intensifies the confrontation with South Korea, he appears to be raising the profile of his 11-year-old daughter, Ju-ae. Is he positioning her...
Kim’s saber-rattling looks like a prolonged childish tantrum
With Kim Jong-un now walking a path of military escalation, defense experts in South Korea and the United States are assessing the impact on their...
With her Mount Paektu bloodline, there is nothing preventing Kim Ju-ae being the next leader
The Korea Institute for National Unification, a government think tank in Seoul, has released a report saying that, considering the increased role of women within...
There’s ideology in those blue jeans
Everyone has at least one pair of jeans. They have the distinction of being ordinary and fashionable at the same time. The designer Yves Saint...
My mother, the Iron Lady
One of my most terrifying memories was the day the secret police ransacked our family’s house. Three men barged in and one of them barked...
Why North Koreans would vote for Trump if they could
With the US presidential election campaign picking up steam and, despite the controversy and legal issues swirling around him, Donald Trump might win in November....
Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Fund, “Using the Dead to Exploit the Living”
The bodies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leaders who died in 1994 and 2011 respectively, are enshrined in the...
The Differing Views of North Korean Women on Human Rights Activism
Why is it that women who defect from North Korea and come straight to South Korea have a different attitude to human rights activism than...