Reviews

The Rise of the Anonymous Writer: A Review of Kim Yu-kyung’s “Place of Human Desecration”

By | October 09, 2017

Where Deborah Smith’s translation of “The Accusation” opened up Bandi’s short stories for the English-speaking world, there are several novels by defector writers that are only in Korean. “Place of Human Desecration” is one. Robert Lauler reviews it.

Divided Peninsula, Split Personalities: A Review of Hong Sang-hwa’s “The Intelligence Agent”

By | August 08, 2017

In a new review for Sino-NK, Robert Lauler once again turns his attention to Korean literature centered around national division, taking a magnifying glass to The Intelligence Agent, the latest novel by Hong Sang-hwa.

A Roundtable Review of Van Jackson’s Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in U.S.-North Korea Relations

By | June 19, 2017

Adam Mount (Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress), Daniel Pinkston (Troy University), and Martin Weiser (graduate of Korea University) provide different evaluations of Van Jackson’s analysis of the history of the US-North Korea relationship in his newly published book, Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in U.S.-North Korea Relations.

Yongusil 92: A New Perspective on the Evolution of South Korea’s Developmental State

By | June 12, 2017

Contrary to extant findings, evidence suggests the origins of South Korea’s industrial and economic transformation predated Park Chung-hee’s rise to power. A forthcoming piece for the Journal of Contemporary Asia argues that sweeping land reforms implemented in South Korea in the post-liberation period laid the foundations of the country’s economic development and industrial transformation.

One Dystopian Korea: A Review of Our Aspiration is War by Jang Kang-myung

By | January 11, 2017

Sino-NK doesn’t review many novels, but that doesn’t mean fiction is irrelevant. Quite the opposite. Here, Robert Lauler reviews the latest book by “Because I Hate Korea” author Jang Kang-myung, in which he sketches out a disturbing, dystopian portrait of a future unified Korea.