Author: Andrei Nikolaevich Lankov
N. Korean no longer robot
In 1986 or 1987 while reading Nodong sinmun (gosh, I subscribed the paper in those days – it was so cheap for the Soviet citizens!) I came across an article […]
How do North Koreans spend their leisure time nowadays?
Some people say that modern civilization pays took much attention to entertain and leisure time. Not all historians agree with such a critical attitude because they are well aware: people […]
Why human rights slogans fail in Pyongyang?
Earlier this year, the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(North Korea) published its report on the human rights situation in North Korea. The […]
N Korea’s reporting on collapse of Pyongyang apartment
On 18th May 2014, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released an unusual report in which they admitted that a 23-storey apartment building had collapsed in downtown Pyongyang. The official […]
Cynicism and alienation growing in North Korea
There are many signs that cynicism and alienation is steadily growing within North Korean society and, especially, lower reaches of its elite. People who recently had opportunities to talk frankly […]
Pyongyang’s motives behind conciliatory gestures
A remarkable chain of diplomatic initiatives from Pyongyang has marked the last two months. Since early January, North Korean ambassadors in a number of countries delivered public statements and conducted […]
North Korea’s bizarre distribution system
When it comes to its economy, North Korea is a very special place. Perhaps not as much as it used to be, with the steady growth of grassroots capitalism, but […]
Can South Korea unify North Korea by absorption?
Lessons to be learned from Crimean crisis The unrolling Ukrainian crisis has been in the news a lot of late. The recent succession of Crimea can be seen in various […]
Confederation or instant unification
Over the last few months we have seen a number of signals which indicate that Marshall Kim Jong Un, the young North Korean dictator, is really serious about changing his […]
China’s conditions to accept a ‘unified Korea’
Recent months have seen an unusual amount of noise and a sense of crisis in Northeast Asia, a region in which nationalist passions have not run this high for decades. […]