DPRK Foreign Relations

Sino-NK 2013 Rewind: Pop Politics and the Narrative of the Bizarre

By | December 20, 2013

Sherri L. Ter-Molen takes the “outside” tack on North Korean cultural production and media engagement in 2013. From Dennis Rodman to Jang Sung-taek via Angry Birds and the Samjiyon.

PLA General on “Incalculable Damage” of North Korea’s Nuclear Program

By | December 20, 2013

If China begins to see itself as the primary victim of North Korea’s nuclear research, then a more confrontational approach toward Pyongyang becomes possible, reveals a new translation by Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga.

Yongusil 21: North Korean Review on the Unhasu Orchestra in Paris and the AP in Pyongyang

By | December 13, 2013

The Unhasu Orchestra has disappeared from North Korean cultural life. Adam Cathcart and Steven Denney explore that orchestra’s role (and that of the AP) in diplomacy within North Korea’s political repertoire, in a newly-published scholarly article for the North Korean Review.

Blind Legacy: Jang Sung-taek and North Korea’s Invisible Cross-Border Bridge

By | December 09, 2013

The bridge between Dandong and Sinuiju is pregnant with economic potential, nearly complete, and in a very real sense associated with newly unmasked “counter-revolutionary” Jang Sung-taek. Revisiting a recent essay for The Daily NK, Chief Editor Adam Cathcart investigates.

Jang Sung-taek: Chopped Off at the Knees

By | December 05, 2013

The purge of Jang Sung-taek has provided the world with a fresh layer of Korean peninsula intrigue, and yet more questions about the nature of Kimist dominance in the era of Jong-un. As the Twittersphere flutters, Nick Miller weighs in. Additional content from Christopher Green.