DPRK Foreign Relations

On Contradiction: The PRC Foreign Ministry and “China Responsibility Theory”

By | July 15, 2017

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

By | July 10, 2017

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.

The Russian Sanctions Policy: Reflecting the Long View

By | July 10, 2017

It makes little sense for Russia to divest itself of economic ties to the northern half of Korea at the request of the United States. What Putin and his government fear is that new sanctions will cut Russia off from having a presence in a reunified Korea. Anthony Rinna looks at Russia’s long game.

The Past and Present of North Korean Belligerence: Rangoon 1983

By | July 07, 2017

The Rangoon Bombing of 1983 remains a piece of hidden history, only to be fully illuminated when the division of the two Koreas comes to an end. In the meantime, the archives of the ROK government give evidence of what motivated the attack. Let Eungseo Kim look back and be your guide.

A Roundtable Review of Van Jackson’s Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in U.S.-North Korea Relations

By | June 19, 2017

Adam Mount (Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress), Daniel Pinkston (Troy University), and Martin Weiser (graduate of Korea University) provide different evaluations of Van Jackson’s analysis of the history of the US-North Korea relationship in his newly published book, Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in U.S.-North Korea Relations.