The Cannibals of North Korea
There were times and places in North Korea in the mid-1990s, as a great famine wiped out perhaps 10 percent of the population, that children feared to sleep in the open. Some of them had wandered in...
View ArticleNew North Korea video shows destruction of what appears to be New York City
As North Korea threatens to carry out measures “stronger” than a third nuclear test in response to what it believes are “hostile” sanctions imposed after its December rocket launch, its state media...
View ArticleThat crazy North Korean video of New York blowing up, now with English
We wrote earlier today about the truly bizarre North Korean propaganda video that apparently depicts a space shuttle blowing up New York City, among other things. Now, that video has been translated...
View ArticleThe infantilization of Kim Jong Il
Former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has a birthday coming up next week, a state holiday referred to as “the day of the shining star”; he would be turning 72, were he still alive. If you’re still...
View ArticleWhy uranium would make a North Korean nuclear test especially scary
North Korea’s recent threat to conduct an underground nuclear weapons test, its third, is provocative enough on its own. The North Korean nuclear weapons program is illegal, dangerous and...
View ArticleGoogle Maps reveals exact site of North Korea’s nuclear test, plus nearby...
A sudden and unexpected earthquake inside the North Korean mountains late on Tuesday night, U.S. East Coast time, was a nuclear weapons test, the country’s third. The tremor, though not large, was...
View ArticleWhy it’s so hard to tell if North Korea used a plutonium or (much scarier)...
Probably the most pressing question still lingering over North Korea’s latest nuclear test is what sort of nuclear material the country used: was it plutonium or highly enriched uranium? But it’s also...
View ArticleWhy China still supports North Korea, in six little words
North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Tuesday is putting some strain on its all-important relationship with China, which gives its angry little neighbor absolutely essential support: everything from...
View ArticleObama’s six options for dealing with North Korea (they’re all terrible)
North Korea’s recent nuclear test, for all its significance, is in some ways just another setback in the world’s long and fraught effort to make a stable, peaceful and nuke-free Korean peninsula. That...
View ArticleThe 11 foreign policy takeaways from Obama’s State of the Union
Obama’s State of the Union address included 15 full paragraphs on foreign policy – much more than his inaugural address. While there weren’t any revolutionary moments, Obama did make a number of...
View ArticleNorth Korea releases another propaganda video, this one with Obama in flames
Just when you thought North Korean propaganda videos could get no crazier, the country’s official news agency Uriminzokkiri has posted a video that reaches new heights of absurdity and bombast. This...
View ArticleWhy North Korean propaganda videos steal from American video games
The latest bizarre and openly threatening propaganda video from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, just like the last one, has some elements that might be familiar to teenage or 20-something...
View ArticleDoes North Korea have American video games, after all?
In a post yesterday on the odd propensity of North Korean propaganda videos to borrow images and music from popular American computer games – which presumably would be not just inaccessible in North...
View ArticleVideo: Hilarious Chinese TV ad mocks Kim Jong Eun
Chinese software company Kingsoft is running this ad in China to promote its new Web browser, Liebao. The ad, flagged by the always-great Beijing Cream, has a simple premise: North Korean leader Kim...
View ArticleSouth Korea’s struggle to find a workable approach to North Korea
Last week, a story of mine was published describing the conundrum South Korea’s government faces as it decides whether to support a United Nations investigation into North Korea’s human rights abuses....
View ArticleDennis Rodman’s bizarre trip to North Korea: Is it also unethical?
American basketball star Dennis Rodman and several members of the Harlem Globetrotters are in North Korea, where they will film for a forthcoming Vice/HBO program and promote some “basketball...
View ArticleInstagrams from within North Korea lift the veil, but only slightly
This photo by AP Korean bureau chief Jean H. Lee has rocketed around the Internet this week, and for good reason. It’s one of the first Instagrams posted since North Korea enabled 3G access for...
View ArticleHere’s a video of Dennis Rodman in North Korea
Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea earlier today for a trip that his agent says is about both “basketball diplomacy” and taking footage for a Vice/HBO program. (His agent also says Rodman will meet...
View ArticleToday’s reads: China’s housing bubble, Palestine’s third party
This post is part of a recurring feature in which I’ll share some of what I’m reading today. It’s meant to highlight some of the best foreign affairs coverage from other media outlets, blogs, academic...
View ArticleSatellite images show growth of North Korean labor camp
New satellite images released this week by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea chronicle what it says is steady growth in a prison camp on the northeast coast. Camp 25, one of dozens of...
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