Economic Policy

Poor Professors, State Corruption, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit Within the North Korean Economy

By | August 23, 2012

At ASAN, Brian Gleason channels testimony from Kim Heung Kwang, a former professor in North Korea and current head of North Korea Intellectual Solidarity, and discussion of state corruption in the DPRK.

Translating Jang Song Taek in Beijing: A Communique Troika

By | August 18, 2012

Adam Cathcart tracks down significant divergences in the Chinese and English versions of the public statements released in Beijing after the visit of North Korean leader Jang Song-taek to the Chinese capital.

“Nightmare Investment”: Documenting North Korea’s Abuse of the Haicheng Xiyang Group

By | August 15, 2012

Adam Cathcart documents and analyzes accusations of wholesale North Korean theft from and violence toward their Chinese counterparts in the mining industry.

Chinese Bureaucratic Politics and Sino-North Korean Relations: Dynamics and Implications

By | August 05, 2012

Beijing University’s Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga contends that Chinese bureaucratic politics largely drives the direction of the Sino-North Korean relationship.

One Ocean, Two Systems : Drills in the Yellow Sea and China’s Maritime Outlook

By | July 06, 2012

For the first time, Korean, Japanese and U.S. Forces conducted a tri-lateral exercise in the Yellow Sea.  China released a carefully worded statement emphasizing that the exercises took place “beyond the territorial waters of any country.”  Those seven words are critical to China and to Chinese claims to disputed waters in Southeast Asia.  They also […]