Kim Jong-un
In My Father’s House There Are Many Bunkers: Assessing the Kim Jong Un Speech
Kim Jong Un’s pre-centennial speech to the WPK, admonishing the functionaries to hold his grandfather and father — now the eternal General Secretary of the WPK — in high esteem, occurred in what are anything but thriving times. In North Korea, such behavior is the continuation of an old tradition.[1] The April 15 speech, analyzed […]
Upstaging Dystopia: Adam Johnson and Suk-Young Kim on North Korea’s Performance Culture
Along with some fine displays of military bravura and a notable speech by the new North Korean leader-commissar (before he retired to enjoy a smoke), April was a month during which foreigners shone their bright talents as entertainers for the Pyongyang elite. Now those musicians and jugglers and PLA singers (no true jesters were allowed, […]
Hydrological Engineering,Coastal Land Reclamation and the Multifunctional Paradigm in the DPRK
As any student of ancient Chinese history can tell you, historically speaking, there is nothing more fundamental to political legitimacy in East Asia than the ability of a regime to harness, control, and regulate water both as agricultural resource and danger. In both guises — sustainer and potential destroyer — water politics appear repeatedly in […]
Hybridization of Performance Scale: Missile Launch
We may never know what has transpired behind the curtain — or the growing wall of statues — in Pyongyang, but we can appreciate very much being treated as the audience to a great performance. The intermingled leadership of the Korean Workers’ Party and the Korean People’s Army has been putting their new auditorium in […]
A Progressive Perspective: Moon Chung-in on North Korea
What do progressive-liberals think is the best way to deal with North Korea? What do they make of previous administrations’ efforts to engage Pyongyang? In 2012, Steven Denney and Brian Gleason interviewed progressive bulwark Prof. Moon Chung-in.
Partners
