Featured Essays
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.
Quantifying Civilian Casualties in the Northeast during the Chinese Civil War
Did the CCP starve hundreds of thousands of civilians to death during the Chinese civil war? How can we find out? Adam Cathcart takes a magnifying glass to a popular contemporary claim.
Neglected Voices: The Forgotten Psychological Effects of Korean War Bombings
Every war is complicated, but the Korean War, an international conflict, was more complicated than most. Here, Imogen Bird explores the difficulty of excavating civilian voices from the carnage.
Brazil and Mexico’s Relations with North Korea
Sino-NK has looked at the roots of Brazil’s engagement with the Korean War armistice, with a nod to the 50,000 Koreans resident in the country. In this essay, Anthony Rinna looks back to 2017, when Brazil and Mexico showed a notable contrast in their approaches to the DPRK.
Power and the Periphery: The North Korea Factor in Sino-American Relations
North Korea is a constant feature, albeit an inconsistent one, in various aspects of China’s relations with the US. Anthony Rinna provides a reminder.
The Manchurian Myth: History and Power in North Korea
As the smoke clears from Kaesong and succession talk swirls around Kim Yo-jong, Sino-NK revisits one of the key foundations of North Korean history education.
Chinese Doctors and North Korea: Reviewing the Pattern
A Reuters report on Chinese doctors treating North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spurs Adam Cathcart to deeper investigation of party-to-party medical relations.
COVID-19 in North Korea: A Mirror into the Soul of the South
An outbreak of COVID-19 in North Korea may, indeed, become the ending point of greater cooperation between the two Koreas for the time being, but the two Koreas were arguably never really that close in the first place. Robert Lauler explains.
