Author Archive

Minority Affairs in the Xi Jinping Era: Hardened Cadre on the Periphery

By | March 18, 2019

What does the increasingly harsh tone of Chinese Communist Party’s policy toward ethnic minorities mean for Koreans in the northeast? Adam Cathcart looks at officials and the new Xi environment.

North Korean Markets and the High Seas: A Review of Justin Hastings’ “A Most Enterprising Country”

By | February 25, 2019

Is North Korea ready to radically expand its interactions with the international trading system? According to one scholar, it already has.

North Korean Citizens in Changbai: Social Insurance, Residency Rights, and Chinese Informants

By | January 21, 2019

Local Chinese governments are making changes in the way they deal with some undocumented North Korean residents in their border communities. Adam Cathcart investigates.

SEZ Revival Tour? Kim Jong-un in Dandong

By | January 14, 2019

Coverage of Kim Jong-un’s first diplomatic outing of 2019 yields little information on who Kim met in Dandong en route for Beijing. Since the border city is where the rubber of bilateral policy meets the road, it deserves more attention. Adam Cathcart does the honors.

Ending the Korean War: Donald Trump as Ex-President

By | July 31, 2018

Adam Cathcart looks at the end of the Korean War and its resonance today from an American perspective. Cathcart argues that Trump is in many respects in Korea acting more like an ex-President than a conventional, active one.

From New York to Dandong: Maximum Pressure

By | July 23, 2018

Digging into sources outside the Anglosphere, Adam Cathcart finds that developments along the border and further into the interior of both China and North Korea indicate any American desire to maintain economic pressure on the DPRK will be difficult, if not impossible.

Yongusil 94: Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands

By , and | July 09, 2018

Sino-NK senior editors are excited to announce we have been working with Amsterdam University Press on an edited volume dealing with the issues and contradictions of the PRC-DPRK border. Our aim is to bring migration and economic issues into holistic dialogue. Here, we briefly introduce the project.

What Inspired DPRK Invective against China?

By | December 19, 2017

Amid new rumors of Chinese preparations for contingencies on the Korean peninsula and more sanctions enforcement, Chinese-North Korean relations seem likely to sour further. Adam Cathcart investigates a key example of North Korean public anger aimed at Beijing.