A brief and surprisingly entertaining video history of America’s wars in Asia
The story of the United States' ill-fated Cold War incursions into East Asia is complicated and sometimes misunderstood. But it's also extremely important -- not just for Korea and Vietnam but in...
View ArticleNorth Korea endorses ‘Double Down’ as proof that ‘The U.S. is the root cause...
North Korea's official media arm, the Korean Central News Agency, will seize on just about anything that helps it portray the "U.S. imperialist dogs" as the innately evil cause of all the world's...
View ArticleElle magazine names ‘North Korea Chic’ as a top fashion trend for fall 2013
In February 2011, when Vogue magazine published a fawning profile of Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad, I asked the story's editor whether his magazine would consider profiling the wife of North Korean...
View ArticleThe U.S. just issued its harshest travel warning against North Korea in 18...
The State Department has long cautioned Americans about visiting North Korea, but on Tuesday it went a big step further, issuing a blanket warning against all American travel to the country. This was...
View ArticleEverything we know about Merrill Newman, the 85-year-old American imprisoned...
Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old American who lives in California, has been detained in North Korea since Oct. 26, multiple news reports now confirm. Several hundred Americans are thought to visit North...
View ArticleWhy did North Korea arrest an 85-year-old American? Here are four possible...
Nearly four weeks after North Korea arrested an 85-year-old American retiree who was visiting the country as a tourist -- an arrest disclosed only a few days ago -- the world still has no idea why....
View Article‘The other side of North Korea’: A defected smuggler’s extraordinary story
Seongmin was 12 years old when he started smuggling goods in from China. It was the late 1990s, a time when North Korean border communities like his were beginning to change rapidly and in ways we are...
View ArticleEven by North Korean standards, this announcement of Jang Song Thaek’s...
North Korean state media are known for hyperbole, but even so, the official announcement of the execution of Jang Song Thaek is a step beyond. The state-run Korean Central News Agency released a long...
View ArticleKim Jong Un just had his own uncle killed. Why?
Just over a week after South Korean intelligence officials revealed that North Korea had purged senior government official Jang Song Thaek, who also happened to be the uncle of leader Kim Jong Un,...
View ArticleNorth Korea’s official new music video sounds suspiciously like Walter...
North Korean state media churns out official music videos with some regularity. The productions glorify the state, the state ideology, and of course Dear Leader Kim Jong Un. They also tend to benefit...
View Article‘An intolerable mockery’: the wild-eyed worldview of North Korean propaganda
The scribes at North Korea's official state news agency have long elevated hyperbole into an art form, but even by their high standards, this week's pronouncement was something special. Here's a...
View ArticleKim Jong Un’s former classmates say he really is ‘dangerous, unpredictable,...
The U.S. government reached alarming conclusions about the personal character of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un based on interviews with people who knew him when he was a student in Switzerland,...
View ArticleNorth Korea is more accessible to foreign journalists than Tibet is
The Tibetan Autonomous Region of China has been largely closed to the outside world since it was wracked by popular protests in 2008. But the extreme degree of its isolation is hinted at by this very...
View ArticleNorth and South Korea exchange faxes threatening to attack each other
North Korea sent a fax to South Korea's defense ministry on Thursday, threatening "a merciless retaliation without warning" in response to an anti-North Korean demonstration that had taken place in...
View ArticleThis photo of Kim Jong Un riding a ski lift is North Korea’s way of flipping...
This photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sitting alone on a ski lift might not look like North Korea flipping Europe a giant middle finger. But that's exactly what it is. I'll explain. Kim is...
View ArticleNo, Kim Jong Un probably didn’t feed his uncle to 120 hungry dogs
If you've been on the Internet at all today, you've almost certainly seen the story claiming that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had his uncle executed last month by stripping him naked and feeding...
View Article2013 was the year of cybersecurity
Cybersecurity came up so many times in 2013 that it was easy to miss how quickly and completely it became a central feature of how we think about U.S. foreign policy and national security. Partly, this...
View ArticleThe Dennis Rodman problem: Is it unethical to visit North Korea?
American basketball star Dennis Rodman is in North Korea yet again, this time with a group of former NBA players for a goodwill game. When he first visited, in February 2013, his trip revived a...
View ArticleDennis Rodman’s North Korea high jinks aren’t funny anymore
It's easy to laugh at former NBA star Dennis Rodman's bizarre displays in North Korea. He's a colorful character, and he does absurd stuff. So, for that matter, does his new best friend in the entire...
View ArticleThe UN report on North Korea: Four things to know
The United Nations released an authoritative report on North Korea on Monday describing rights violations “without any parallel in the contemporary world.” And North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got an...
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