Featured Essays
Staring into the “Fog” of North Korea Reporting: Pyongyang’s January Lockdown
Sino-NK likes to look behind the scenes to the nuts and bolts of North Korea news-gathering. In this essay, Daily NK staffer Robert Lauler examines the details of a recent case: the Pyongyang lockdown.
Free to be Controlled: Press and Protest under Park Chung-hee
A review of two recent works examining the role of the media and the development of protest culture in South Korea during the Park regime.
Russia’s Iskander Ballistic Missile System Has Long Worried NATO: Its North Korean Cousin is Much More Dangerous
Analysis of a new North Korean weapon that bears a striking resemblance to Russia’s Iskander missile.
Katchi Kapshida, Comrades: Donetsk Leader Reacts to North Korea’s Support
A leader of a separatist Ukrainian republic annexed by Russia hails North Korea’s support as a sign of a revised international order.
Aura of Criminality: Perspectives of Empire in Japan’s East Asian Conquests, 1932-1945
In the second part of this series, Jessica Pitcher examines the relationship between Japanese imperial authorities in China and the practice of narcotics trafficking, which “weakened” the inhabitants of the occupied territories while filling government coffers in Manchukuo.
Telegraphing Conflict in the Taiwan Strait: South Korea and the Xi Jinping Factor
In light of the war in Ukraine, Sino-NK rounds up a range of academic papers, reports, and think pieces on Xi Jinping and Taiwan, with special interest in South Korean perspectives.
Discovering Patriotic History near China’s Korean Border
What happens when the CCP locates debris from the World War II era in China’s northeastern border region? Patriotic education and reflections on a useable past.
Narcotics, Smuggling and Sex: Perspectives of Empire in Japan’s East Asian Conquests, 1932-1945, Part One
Empires are often described in grand and abstract terms, but they are also an everyday phenomenon, where the authority of the colonizing state is impressed upon its subjects in myriad ways. Here, Jessica Pitcher examines the role of sex trafficking in the everyday conception of the Japanese empire in Korea.
Mirage of Peace: Trump, China, and Kim Jong-un
As the Biden administration mulls its approach to North Korea, we reconsider the Trump era “maximum pressure” policy within the context of Sino-North Korean relations.
Plagues & Peoples in Korea, II: Behold! A New World Is Before Our Eyes
Christopher Richardson explores the social and political consequences of the Spanish Flu pandemic for Korea as the March 1st Movement erupts, and tracks the journeys of three doctors en route to their places in Korean history and revolutionary mythology.
A Model(led) Minority: Socioeconomics Transforming Korean Diasporic Identities in China, Japan, and Germany
Casting a comparative lens, Victor de Valk explores the distinctive role of socioeconomics in transforming diasporic identities across three countries.
Plagues & Peoples in Korea, I: The Visitation
Christopher Richardson returns to Sino-NK with the first of a timely and exciting new series on how the Spanish Flu ravaged Korea during the tumultuous early 20th century. Worth considering as we watch next steps in the COVID pandemic.
Yongusil 103: Explaining S. Koreans’ Support of Nuclear Acquisition
Lauren Sukin explains the results of her research experiments, suggesting that US security guarantees extended to Seoul can backfire, leading to increased support for South Korea going nuclear.
North Korea and Coronavirus: International Relations and Local Data from Dandong
Adam Cathcart reads some local public health data point from Dandong, and in the process surveys the vaccination landscape faced by a highly reluctant North Korea.
One Family, Two Stories: Russian-Korean Repatriate Experiences in Their Ethnic Homeland
Analysis of “The Tea Party”, a videoblog by Russian-Korean siblings who acquired Korean citizenship based on anti-Japanese heritage, but whose lived experiences are familiar to many migrants.
