Cultural Relations

A Roundtable Review of Shine Choi’s Re-Imagining North Korea in International Politics

By | July 22, 2015

In a new “neutron star” of a book, sociologist Shine Choi delves into the many ways of seeing North Korea. Sino-NK reviews the argumentative battlefield.

North Korean Scholars and Koguryo: How to Reignite a Historical Controversy on Chinese National Day

By | October 03, 2014

With a host of signs popping up that ties between Beijing and Pyongyang are poor, and a few that suggest the opposite, Adam Cathcart looks at how the North Korean government is currently brandishing an unmistakable totem of clashing nationalisms.

German Shepherds and German Musical Politics in North Korea

By | October 01, 2014

Among the elite music academies of Pyongyang, performances take place of German symphonic literature and avant-garde contemporary music; our editor-in-chief assesses the scene.

Spaces of Leisure: From Cinematic Birth to Physical Culture

By | September 27, 2014

Considering the development of leisure and entertainment in North Korea Robert Winstanley-Chesters tracks its movement from initial strategies focusing on the purely ideologic, political or cultural, to a return in the 1970s to a focus on sporting activity and spatiality.

Yongusil 45: PRC Power Consolidation, the Korean War, and the “Cold Front” of Historical Research in Hong Kong

By | September 18, 2014

In a conference which took place on September 15-16 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an array of new scholarship was presented which indicated the scope and depth of the Chinese Communist Party’s power consolidation during the Korean War. Sino-NK’s own Adam Cathcart presented his work alongside several up-and-coming students and established scholars.