OUR COLLEAGUES AT THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON NORTH KOREA WRITE — As COVID-19 intensifies in the United States and elsewhere, the North Korean response to the pandemic is fading from the headlines. However, NCNK is continuing to monitor the situation through regular contact with a wide range of information sources.…
FROM THE STAFF OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON NORTH KOREA IN WASHINGTON — With the spread of Coronavirus (COVID19) the National Committee on North Korea has been receiving inquiries about the situation in North Korea. We can report that a significant element of the population is at special risk given…
EMILY CAPOUYA WRITES — According to a United Nations confidential report, North Korea has violated resolutions made with the United Nations Security Council by continuing to enhance its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons program. Recently, a summary of the report was submitted to the UN Security Council. Six sections of…
(The following is the most recent analysis of the North Korean impasse by the special advisor on this issue to the president of South Korea) MOON CHUNG-IN WRITES — A Dec. 31 deadline passed without Pyongyang delivering to the United States its threatened “Christmas gift” if Washington didn’t alter its…
TOM PLATE WRITES — There’s often little more than a thin line between admirable principle and annoying stubbornness, and that line is not always easy to identify. Lost in the miasma of mutually exclusive righteousness, each side says the other is wrong or evil or both. The tragic consequence is that…
DANIELA GUEVARA WRITES – In an unusual case this month, South Korea has deported two North Koreans back to their home country. The ruling came after discovering that the two North Korean defectors had killed 16 fishermen on the boat they were working on as fishermen. The deportations of…
WEI WU WRITES — The South Korean movie “Parasite”, 2019 Golden Palm Award winner and recently released in East Asia after its 2018 debut, has re-ignited popular discussion of important issues about Korea. The movie was directed by Bong Joon-Hyun who has directed “Memories of Murder” and “Snowpiercer”. Bong focuses on…
TRISHA CURRY WRITES – An increasingly asked question these days: Whom do economic sanctions hurt the most? Take the case of North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – DPRK). This troubled nation of 25 million is dangerously close to a return to its dismal economic status of 1997 – one of…
SENAY EMMANUEL WRITES – On June 30th, 2019, US President Donald Trump met with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas. With that, Trump became the first sitting US president to visit the isolated country. This symbolic gesture made for an incredible photo…
[Editor’s Note] – The rise of a new global power has often led to hegemonic wars. In the following essay, Prof. Graham Allison discusses how the rise of China might affect the Korean Peninsula and offers his insights on the possibility of a second Korea war. An earlier version of…
PATRICK POLESHUK WRITES- If the recent Trump-Kim summit has told us anything about North Korea’s relationship with the U.S, it is that the two leaders appear to be on separate wavelengths. The summit’s location in Hanoi, Vietnam, while comfortable and convenient for both Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un, was not…
ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL AND PACIFIC CENTURY INSTITUTE WRITE — March First, 2019, marks the one hundred year anniversary of the Sam-il movement in Korea. We interviewed artist Maureen Wolfson from Calabasas, California, who was recently inspired by the storied life of one of the movement organizers, Ryu Gwan-Soon (1902 – 1920), to…
ALEXANDRA RADILALEH WRITES– Thirty-one years after an unlikely relationship, Pham Ngoc Canh, a Vietnamese man, and Ru Yong Hui, a North Korean woman, were finally married in 2002, when North Korea allowed Ru to marry a foreigner. Now, almost two decades later, the couple sees hope that their two countries’…
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Yonhap) — The United States and North Korea should hold their second summit at an early date to break the impasse in their denuclearization talks, a special adviser to President Moon Jae-in says. Moon Chung-in, who serves as special presidential adviser for unification, foreign and security affairs,…
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES – In the streets of Hyesan city, North Korea, a woman in her forties makes ends meet by selling clothes and textiles to local markets. A guard or a police officer stops her, demanding she follow him to an empty room or other such location. She complies.…
(AMI NOTES: Moon Chung-in is a distinguished professor at Yonsei University and the special advisor for unification, diplomacy and national security affairs for South Korean President Moon Jae-in. His essay, condensed via common use courtesy, was produced by The WorldPost, a partnership of the Berggruen Institute, and The Washington Post.)…
