Special Economic Zones after the Purge
A Sino-NK trio translates an early PRC response to the Jang Sung-taek purge, revealing data about the new Onsung Special Economic Zone and the desire of both sides to retain a veneer of normalcy in the Chinese-North Korean trade relationship.
Chinese Anxieties and Korean War Commemorations
As we consider and reconsider changes in Chinese-North Korean relations that have unfolded over the past year, a look back at the Korean War commemorations this past July is more than appropriate. Adam Cathcart translates Huanqiu Shibao and meditates on the utility and trauma of the Korean War as history.
Sino-NK 2013 Rewind: Pop Politics and the Narrative of the Bizarre
Sherri L. Ter-Molen takes the “outside” tack on North Korean cultural production and media engagement in 2013. From Dennis Rodman to Jang Sung-taek via Angry Birds and the Samjiyon.
Sino-NK 2013 Rewind: North Korean Literature at Masik Speed
Benoit Berthelier examines North Korean cultural production from the “inside,” revealing literary outputs determinedly in step with current manifestations of the urgent–and of Kim Jong-un himself.
PLA General on “Incalculable Damage” of North Korea’s Nuclear Program
If China begins to see itself as the primary victim of North Korea’s nuclear research, then a more confrontational approach toward Pyongyang becomes possible, reveals a new translation by Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga.