Kim Jong-un

Cultures of Critique: Kim Jong-un on North Korean Deforestation

By | June 08, 2015

Kim Jong-un’s recent rhetoric lamented the deforestation of the North Korean landscape; Sino-NK assesses the challenges and possibilities for innovation.

Purges, Baekdu, and the Moranbong Band: Data Points around General Hyon

By | May 16, 2015

Using music as a medium, Adam Cathcart takes the field of debate regarding the alleged purge and execution of Hyon Yong-chol into the ultra-politicized realm of concert halls and power stations.

Satellites and State Media: Breaking Down Recent Execution Rumors

By | May 04, 2015

Is it in any sense possible to corroborate recent assertions that North Korea may have executed officials with massive 50-caliber machine guns?

Moscow vs. Vladivostok: Prospects for a Russia-North Korea Summit

By | February 23, 2015

Did Kim Jong-un already meet Xi Jinping in northeast China? And will the North Korean leader show up in Moscow this coming May? A guest voice assesses the potential.

Hagiography of the Kims & the Childhood of Saints: Kim Il-sung

By | January 31, 2015

In this essay Christopher Richardson explores the childhood hagiography of Kim Il-sung, “the master narrative from which all others derive,” and in so doing locates the origins of regime durability and state legitimacy.