N. Korea’s ‘organizational life’ in decline
Communist societies loved to educate their subjects. Initially, this penchant for education began with a rather noble aim in mind. Communism itself was the child of the European Enlightenment and therefore early communist ideologues believed that the common people should be immersed in great and uplifting moral thought, as well as to be enlightened in […]
N. Korea’s 2002 reforms have lasting consequences
Half-forgotten N. Korean economic reforms not to be overlooked One of the important peculiarities of North Korea is its stubborn unwillingness to take the reform path trodden thus far by Vietnam and China. Due to a number of political and social reasons, for decades the North Korean government has worked hard to keep the system […]
How social exchanges can help solve North Korea problem
North Korea is not an ordinary country. It is a major problem for the international community that has been remarkably resistant to solutions over the last two decades. Since the early 1990s, when the North Korean nuclear problem first emerged, the US and, more broadly, the international community has oscillated between “hard” and “soft” approaches […]
N. Korea: player in the Gwangju Democratic Uprising?
Korean history as seen in South Korea is deeply contentious. It is not incidental that many school textbooks prefer to stop their narrative around 1960, quietly assuming that what happened after is too controversial for anything resembling an impartial judgment to emerge. Most of the prominent historical events and figures of the post-1945 period are […]
The ‘third Korea’ Yanbian in decline
As everybody knows, there are two Koreas – North and South. There is also, however, another area that is often described as the ‘third Korea’ – the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, located in northeast China, along the border with North Korea. Large Korean-speaking populations can be found in many countries, but in nearly all cases […]
Kaesong: A ‘hot potato’ for N. Korea
So far, the Kaesong industrial zone, the largest intra-Korean economic project, has survived three nuclear tests, a number of long-range missile launches and a few armed clashes on the Korean peninsula. All these have killed other undertakings, but the Kaesong industrial zone remained afloat against all odds. The history of the zone that began operating […]
How long will N. Korea’s regime last?
Three problems of young leader How stable is the North Korean government? Is it going to continue indefinitely? And if it does not, what is its life expectancy? The present author encounters those questions nearly every day. The only honest answer to such questions is that we do not know. There are two obstacles which […]
N. Korea’s bluffing works again
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING North Korea has scored another brilliant diplomatic success. It has scared the world and created a sense of acute international crisis out of nothing. In the last two weeks, Seoul has been flooded with international journalists most of whom have come to report on the “growing tensions between the two Koreas”. […]
NK’s effort to block defectors pays off
Where have all the NK refugees gone? In late February, I was travelling in an area which should be frequently visited by any serious North Korean watcher – the parts of China in the vicinity of the North Korean border, the Yanbian autonomous region in particular. In the past many people, including myself, visited the […]
Chinese Non-action
Despite sanction, China remains staunch NK supporter On the 9th of March, the Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi held a news conference in Beijing. Predictably, one of the questions was about North Korea – after all, China just recently supported another tough resolution of the UN Security Council which condemns the North Korean nuclear test. […]
Russia, Professor at Kookmin University, former professor at Australian National University, PhD in Korean History, Leningrad State University 
Trump, Kim, and the Three P’s of Summit Diplomacy: 
