The Plot Thickens: Documenting the DPRK-Xiyang Spat
North Korean media strikes back at a Chinese company, and the PRC state media wades into the fray. Adam Cathcart tries to translate us out of the quagmire.
Reading North Korean “Reform” in Shenyang: Reportage
What does the Chinese-North Korean relationship look like from the industrial hub of Shenyang? SinoNK’s correspondent tenders conclusions.
China-North Korea Dossier No. 3: North Korea’s Relations with China at the End of the Kim Jong-il Era
This dossier chronicles the matrix of meetings and contacts in the Chinese-North Korean relationship in the two months prior to the death of Kim Jong-il. A joint research project with NK Leadership Watch, the dossier includes a preface by Stephan Haggard.
Reviewing “The Flower Girl”: DPRK Sea of Blood Opera Troupe on Tour in China
Wither Kim Jong-il’s cultural influence in North Korea? Adam Cathcart reviews a performance of North Korean opera in Sichuan.
Korean War Revivalism in DPRK: Historical Consolidation and Personality Cults
Materials show how the DPRK has been changing its own Korean war narrative — and keeping it stable. The return to fulsome gratefulness to China in the last week of July, and the in-depth discussion of the glories of socialist internationalism before that, showed that North Korea seems determined not to go forward absent the protective shield of the Chinese People’s Republic.