Environmental Issues

Mountains and Seas of Gold: 2015 New Year’s Message

By | January 27, 2015

Robert Winstanley-Chesters returns to Sino-NK with his thoughts on Kim Jong-un’s 2015 New Year’s Address from a developmental and narrative point of view, going past – way, way past – debatable calls for inter-Korean rapprochement to look at the developmental sloughs and sumps therein concealed.

Odyssey of Extortion: Chinese Press Coverage of the North Korean Boat Hijacking

By | September 25, 2014

When armed North Korean soldiers boarded their vessel, six Chinese fishermen and their boat were in for a rough ride. An exclusive Sino-NK translation and media analysis.

Politics and Pollack: It Takes a Nation of Fishes

By | July 24, 2014

Bringing his Politics and Pollack series to a close, Robert Winstanley-Chesters explores the most recent pelagic developments in North Korea, focusing on the January 8 Fishing Station and the problematic notion of “charismatic time.”

Yongusil 42: OCIS, North Korea, Institutional Socialization, and the UNFCC

By | July 19, 2014

A panel from the recent Oceanic Conference on International Studies at the University of Melbourne addressed the thematic and theoretical crossroads at which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, North Korean socialization within its institutional framework, and a consideration of climate change from a “Relative Gains” perspective combine; Sino-NK was there.

Politics and Pollack: Fishing in the Age of the Six Goals

By | June 17, 2014

Continuing his series of essays focusing on maritime development in North Korea, Robert Winstanley-Chesters encounters the pelagic realm of the 1970s, revealing deficiencies in Kim Il-sung’s persistent attempts to increase the nation’s harvest of fish.