Cross-border Business Ties

Not Just a Steady Diet of Foreign Currency: Explaining the Price of Rice in North Korea

By | March 14, 2012

Christopher Green is Manager of International Affairs for Daily NK and writer of Destination Pyongyang, based in Seoul.   Not Just a Steady Diet of Foreign Currency: Explaining the Price of Rice in North Korea by Chris Green Until very recently, the price of rice in North Korea’s markets (“jangmadang”) had been trending upward, and this had been […]

The Demise of Military Hegemony in the DPRK

By | March 10, 2012

How do we know what we know about North Korea? Are eruptions of external violence and massive demonstrations signs of a desire for war, or negotiation? In the wake of the Cheonan sinking in spring 2010, former British Chargé d’affaires in Pyongyang James Hoare took to the pages of the Guardian, writing: “killing 46 sailors does not seem […]

Kim Song-nam and Jon Hui Jong: North Korea’s éminence grise for China?

By | March 06, 2012

With the publication of the most successful revised dissertation in recent memory, Patrick McEachern’s Inside the Red Box, institutionally-oriented analyses are back in vogue when it comes to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. However, the weight and activities of some personalities still matter very much more than others in the DPRK, and Nicolas Levi’s […]

Strategy for the Successful Development of the North Korean Minerals Sector

By | March 01, 2012

The DPRK is quite literally sitting on a goldmine, and is endowed with considerable mineral resources. The successful exploitation of this mineral wealth has not yet been realized, but a number of international firms–including Chinese and South Korean–are actively courting the North Korean government. Alan Ferrie, an international economics analyst based in Puget Sound, Washington, […]

Conflicting Signals on the Refugee Issue, and a KCNA-Xinhua Pastiche

By | February 27, 2012

While the refugee issue metasizes in Seoul and curiously grows on the Chinese internet, life continues its rhythms in Pyongyang, and in the hallways of state media. — Editor Conflicting Signals on the Refugee Issue, and a KCNA-Xinhua Pastiche by Adam Cathcart – There were some very strong hints following Li Keqiang’s visit to both […]