Charismatic Environs: From Local Landscape to National Landschaft

By | September 05, 2013

As this sweeping essay illustrates, Kim Jong-un’s obsession with turf and landscape, far from being gratuitous, is in fact part of the North Korean leadership’s art of imbuing the very land of the DPRK with charismatic qualities.

Political and Environmental Organization in North Korea: From Charismatic Politics to Landscapes of Charisma

By | August 22, 2013

Looking at how we might interpret landscapes in an environment of charismatic politics in North Korea, Robert Winstanley-Chesters finds in the work on on the relationship between the politics and the environment a new and useful theory that goes beyond politics, persons, and personhoods. Borne of the politics of charisma is a “landscapes of charisma.”

All Eyes on North Korea: Excavating Twitter Responses to North Korea

By | August 08, 2013

In the new age of academia, 140-characters can drive discourse, argues Mycal Ford in a piece about the scholarly dialogue on North Korea taking place on Twitter. In this essay, Ford mines the Twitter feeds of five high profile North Korea-watchers.

“Patriotism Begins from Love of Courtyard:” Sepho and the Scaling of the Environmental

By | August 06, 2013

No one covers North Korea’s expressions of the “Byungjin line” with more panache than Robert Winstanley-Chesters, who examines the role of families and local neighborhood units in cultivating North Korean legitimacy.

Museum Pieces: Kim Jong-un, the Korean War, and the Shadow of Maoism

By | August 05, 2013

Memories of the Korean War in China are wrapped up with painful tendrils of Maoism, argues Adam Cathcart in a piece reflecting on China’s past. The essay concludes with a full translation of a key Renmin Ribao article on China’s intervention in 1950.