NK Leadership

North Korean Nationalism: Lessons from Pyongyang

By | June 08, 2016

What is North Korean nationalism? Is it the same as the South Korean variant? In a new essay, Steven Denney pauses to reflect on a recent trip to the DPRK, and considers the answers to both of these questions.

Warfare by Feelings: Strategy, Spontaneity, and Emotions in Kim Il-sung’s Tactical Thinking

By | May 10, 2016

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein of UPenn and North Korea Economy Watch examines the role of emotion in DPRK military and political culture. Real KPA commanders surely see things very differently, but rhetorically the DPRK is at odds with the Western ideal of a modern soldier.

Chests Full of Brass: A DPRK Political History in Orders, Medals, Prizes, and Titles

By | January 08, 2016

The DPRK state structure can be hard to discern from the outside, but it is possible to structure analysis so as to dissipate the fog somewhat. Here, Martin Weiser wields the state system of awards and medals to shed light on national history.

Resiliency and Opacity: A Review of North Korea: Markets and Military Rule

By and | January 05, 2016

Coming temporarily out of retirement, Jacques Hersh and Ellen Brun, European leftist intellectuals and Asianists of yore, review Hazel Smith’s mighty tome on markets and military rule.

The Siren Call of Deng: Following in China’s Footsteps?

By | November 23, 2015

Even if North Korea follows the Chinese model of economic reform, Kevin Gray (University of Sussex) argues, the results are destined to be very different.