The Plot Thickens: Documenting the DPRK-Xiyang Spat

By | September 06, 2012

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

By | August 26, 2012

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

By | August 21, 2012

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

By | August 09, 2012

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

By | August 05, 2012

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.