Dual Perspective: Reading Thae Yong-ho

By | August 15, 2018

Thae Yong-ho’s memoir marks a bold attempt to push back the tide of South Korean public ambivalence toward North Korea, a sprawling 500-page narrative of his experiences in the DPRK diplomatic corps over twenty years and ending with his 2016 defection. Robert Lauler takes a look at this essential, if flawed, text.

North Korean Economic Change as Relinquishing of Party Control

By | May 03, 2017

To what extent is the opposition between market activity and Party control in North Korea overstated? Adam Cathcart presents a few caveats.

Amid Sanctions, a Sino-North Korean Rapprochement

By | November 30, 2016

With the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2321, the US has managed to lock in UN implementation of a number of Treasury sanctions on North Korea. Will the PRC finally play the role of partner and ratchet up the pressure on the DPRK, or will it continue to say one thing but do another? Adam Cathcart considers the question.

On Reading North Korean Media: The Curse of the Web

By | October 31, 2016

In the first of a series based on evidence from more than two years spent mapping North Korean online media, Martin Weiser highlights patterns in how North Korean organizations operate and how human error and unchecked individual inputs can shape what we come to read.

Yongusil 62: Contentious Politics on the Korean Peninsula, a Workshop at the University of Toronto

By | March 24, 2015

The Comparative Politics Student Group (CPSG) and the Centre for the Study of Korea at the University of Toronto hosted a workshop on the latest work on contentious politics in both Koreas. Members of the Sino-NK team and professors from the University of Toronto participated.