Reviews

“Unification Aesthetics:” A Review of Lee Si-Woo’s Life on the Edge of the DMZ

By | November 06, 2013

Can the desolation of the North-South border region be understood as a “huge canvas for a meditation on life itself?” Adam Cathcart explores the relationship between the human condition and the peninsula-as-environment in this review of Lee Si-Woo’s Life on the Edge of the DMZ.

The Strength to Concede in Developmental Asia

By | November 02, 2013

Do autocrats cede power to democracy when in fear of the alternative, or is there an alternative hypothesis: that strength increases the likelihood of democratization? East Asian case studies give food for thought. Let Steven Denney be your guide.

A Roundtable Review of Charles Armstrong’s Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950-1992 (updated)

By | October 03, 2013

What does Sino-NK think about the history of the DPRK? Collect a myriad of opinions and perspectives in Sino-NK’s roundtable review of Charles Armstrong’s latest book, Tryanny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950-1992. Introduction by Benjamin R. Young.

[Sino-NK Exclusive] North Korea Through the Lankov Prism: Welcome to “The Real North Korea”

By | April 13, 2013

A Sino-NK exclusive cornucopia of perspectives on Dr. Andrei Lankov’s forthcoming book, The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia.

All the World’s a Stage. Looking Again at North Korea: Beyond Charismatic Politics

By | March 25, 2013

In a contrarian take on one of SinoNK’s favorite texts on North Korean ideology, Peter Ward, a young scholar in Seoul, delves into “Charismatic Politics” in the DPRK.