Author Archive
What Inspired DPRK Invective against China?
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.
Right of Reply: Kim Jong-un’s Rejoinder to American Threats at the UN General Assembly
Pushing back against an over-reliance on personalist explanations for international conflict, Adam Cathcart retreats into history and some speculation.
Chinese Discourse on the New North Korea Sanctions
How have Chinese officials and periodicals been discussing trade with and sanctions on North Korea? Adam Cathcart investigates.
Korean People’s Army Contacts with the Chinese Military
The perception that China and North Korea no longer have the extensive bilateral contacts that they once did may be broadly speaking correct, but it is by no means the whole story. Here, Adam Cathcart brings to our attention an official event from July 25, 2017.
On Contradiction: The PRC Foreign Ministry and “China Responsibility Theory”
When a spokesman pushed back against the Trump administration assertions that China is in the driver’s seat with North Korea, Washington had no response. What was between the lines of this statement from Beijing?
Memos from Pyongyang: A North Korean Perspective on the Otto Warmbier Case
Adam Cathcart does some further thinking around the death of Otto Warmbier, but with an underutilized angle; seeking clarity not on what Warmbier’s passing means for us, but on what it means in Pyongyang.
Buckling Down in Dandong
As Xi Jinping waxes poetic at the “One Belt, One Road” summit in Beijing, we investigate messy realities in the the Chinese border city that would be the ideal hub for any North Korean participation.
North Korean Economic Change as Relinquishing of Party Control
To what extent is the opposition between market activity and Party control in North Korea overstated? Adam Cathcart presents a few caveats.
