RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – In early September, as if the international community needed to be reminded about the alleged capabilities of the North Korean armed forces, the country said that it was prepared to carry out a nuclear attack against (big shocker) the United States and “other hostile forces” for…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Every summer, North Korea makes it known that they vehemently oppose the annual military exercises held by South Korea and the United States. This time, however, tensions may run slightly higher than they usually do during this time of the year. Last Monday, the armed forces…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Last month, a “biological weapons expert” known only as Lee allegedly defected from his native North Korea to Finland. Yonhap News states that he “held a data storage device with 15 gigabytes of information on human experiments” which may prove the existence of North Korea’s alleged…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Is impotence keeping you down? Tired of having bad skin? Suffering from cancer, Ebola, AIDS, MERS, or almost any other scary, life-threatening disease? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions and are able to visit North Korea, you may want to ask your physician…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES– If a hotel in Pyongyang catches fire and the media doesn’t mention it, does it still burn? Of course it does! Last Thursday, the Koryo Hotel, one of the tallest and best-known buildings in North Korea’s capital, caught fire. In a city populated by approximately 3.2 million…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Look out, Lady Gaga! Kim Jong-un’s poker face may be harder to read than your own. As debates over the actual extent of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities continue, Kim Jong-un asserts that his regime has advanced their nuclear weapons technology. The North Korean government has even…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES- Only in North Korea would a national leader claim to have climbed the highest mountain in the country, take a picture (in which he looks neither tired nor properly equipped to accomplish such a task), and then describe such an accomplishment as if he just had a…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES- In the midst of heightened tensions due to annual military drills between the U.S. and South Korea, the North Korean government has announced that they will not hesitate to respond to certain future transgressions by the South with overwhelming force. What are these transgressions, you ask? Dropping…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – At an event where a peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula was being discussed on March 4, U.S. ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was attacked by a knife-wielding activist who demanded the reunification of the two Koreas and expressed opposition to the annual U.S.-South Korean…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Published earlier this month, Paul Fischer’s “A Kim Jong-il Production” explores the late North Korean president’s zeal for film and his attempts to make his country’s film industry the best in the world. After the controversy surrounding the release of “The Interview,” Fischer’s book could not…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – After opening in the UK last Friday, being scheduled for an unofficial North Korean release via balloon airdrop, and possibly helping to bring the Hermit Kingdom into popular culture, The Interview has once again shown the world that it is Kim Jong-unstoppable. When hackers and the…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Shin Dong-hyuk, whose experiences in a North Korean concentration camp are chronicled in 2012’s “Escape from Camp 14,” announced last week that parts of the story portrayed in the book are not completely true. He stated, for example, that most of his time in the camps…
TOM PLATE WRITES IN HIS SYNDICATED COLUMN – In its latest angry shout-out, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea looks to be emerging as something of a computer wonk, the teen crashing and trashing a Hollywood movie-studio’s Christmas Day launch-party plans, embarrassing its movie execs by hacking into and spamming…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Like millennials elsewhere, North Korea’s are unhappy with their circumstances and doing what they must to improve their quality of life. In spite of the government’s restrictions on media, North Korean millennials are still able to consume foreign media, which has played a significant role in…
On Monday November 10th, the Asian Pacific Student Services’ program S.P.E.A.C (Supporting, Promoting, Empowering, Asian Communities) will be hosting a discussion about the ongoing social justice issues in North Korea, the experiences of refugees, and the historical background of the division of the two Koreas from 7:30PM-9:30PM in Malone 112…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – When two Associated Press journalists visited North Korea over the summer, they saw things few, if any, foreigners have ever seen. No, they did not see concentration camps or nuclear weapons. But they did get to see what life is like for North Koreans from all…
