Author Archive
Criticizing the “Low-Key” Approach: Chinese Responses to the DPRK Soldier-Murderer in Yanbian
Is the PRC media response to the death of four Chinese civilians by a hungry North Korean deserter evidence of policy change, or just business as usual? Adam Cathcart looks at the evidence.
Boondoggle on the Yalu: China’s Useless New Bridge to North Korea
A huge new piece of bilateral infrastructure on the Sino-North Korean frontier is to remain unopened for the foreseeable future. Sino-NK provides Chinese context to the news.
On Totalitarian Art: Interview with Morten Traavik
Norwegian artist Morten Traavik’s cultural engagement with North Korean, which includes plans to establish an art institute in Pyongyang, has provoked the ire of at least one German journalist. Adam Cathcart recaps and analyzes an interview with Travvik in the Suddeutsche Zeitung.
North Korean Scholars and Koguryo: How to Reignite a Historical Controversy on Chinese National Day
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.
Purges, Promotions, and Foreign Policy: Lessons from Kim Il-Sung
Using recent power shuffles in the Pyongyang security elite as a backdrop, this essay investigates the peculiar roots and practices of North Korean purges.
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