Featured Essays
Understanding North Korea: Foreign Relations of North Korea in 2000
In this translation from the original Korean, analyst Yujin Lim offers a glimpse of how Seoul perceived Pyongyang’s program of diplomatic outreach in the year 2000, offering observers a chance to peer into the origins of contemporary North Korean foreign policy.
Yongusil 98: Moscow and the Dilemma of Regional Development versus North Korea Sanctions
Russia’s North Korea policy involves a trade-off: refusal to support UN sanctions hurts Russia internationally, but supporting sanctions damages growth prospects in the country’s easternmost regions. Anthony Rinna covers this dilemma in Asian Studies International Review.
55 Remnants of Conflict: The Korean War Prisoners Who Chose Brazil
At the end of the Korean War, 88 North Korean and Chinese POWs decided to gamble on lives in third countries, eschewing South Korea and Taiwan. 55 were resettled in Brazil. These are their stories.
Law, Order, and Heroin in Dandong
The border city of Dandong maintains an important position for the Chinese Communist Party in its relations with the Kim Jong-un regime. Adam Cathcart investigates the latest sources.
Minority Affairs in the Xi Jinping Era: Hardened Cadre on the Periphery
What does the increasingly harsh tone of Chinese Communist Party’s policy toward ethnic minorities mean for Koreans in the northeast? Adam Cathcart looks at officials and the new Xi environment.
The ROK-US Alliance and Great Power Tensions
Anthony Rinna looks at the future for Seoul in a challenging century: reliant on China for its economic wellbeing and the US for its security, the DPRK may end up being the least of its problems.
Small but Indispensable: South Korea as “Jungjaeja”
Does South Korea have much room to manoeuvre in the aftermath of the failed Hanoi talks? Yujin Lim looks at the small power as mediator.
The Mango Mousse Incident: the Flexible Nature of the Dokdo/Takeshima Conflict in Inter-Korean Engagements
Dokdo is a returning theme in North-South Korea relations, one that reveals the long-standing dance of attraction and repulsion between the two Koreas. In a new essay for Sino-NK, Ifang Bremer looks at the evidence.
Russia and Korean Security: The Views from Seoul and Tokyo
Anthony Rinna looks at how Seoul and Tokyo have been dealing with Russia in a world of neo-Cold War tensions between Moscow and Washington.
North Korea’s Nuclear State Status: Seeking Legitimacy in the International Community
Leeds University PhD student Yujin Lim, previously of the Brussels-based European Institute for Asian Studies, describes some of the deterrence theory and IR apparatus around North Korea’s quest for nuclear legitimacy.
By whose example? Analyzing Sino-DPRK Media Portrayals of Relations in 2018
Oxford University’s Tom Fowdy sums up the year of Chinese-North Korean diplomacy, finding self-interest galore amid the statements of eternal brotherhood.
South Korea’s Resettlement of South Vietnamese War Refugees
Matthew VanVolkenburg explores many angles of an overlooked or forgotten episode in South Korea’s history: the resettlement of South Vietnamese war refugees.
Dictatorial Consensus: South Korean Identity and Popular Remembrance of Park Chung-hee
In her debut on Sino-NK, Megan Cansfield provides readers with some intriguing insights into the connection between Park Chung-hee’s push for industrialization and the formation of a specifically South Korean state identity.
The Korean Peninsula and Great Power Geopolitics: Then and Now
Anthony Rinna returns with a look at how the history of international relations in late 19th and early 20th Northeast Asia can help inform us of the possible future trajectory of Beijing-Moscow ties.
China and Russia on a Nuclear North Korea: Policy Alignment, Divergent Relationships
What is the state of Sino-DPRK and Russia-DPRK relations? A quick glance might led one to think there is total Chinese and Russian policy convergence vis-a-vis Korea, but the evidence indicates significant differences in how Moscow and Beijing see the DPRK. Anthony Rinna explains.
