Chosen Soren, a state for leftist Koreans in Japan
Recently I was interviewing a North Korean refugee, a woman in her 50s. In passing she mentioned that she saw her first US movie in 1987 or 1988 while living in a North Korean countryside. I was surprised and asked how that could possibly be case. In those days in North Korea, Western movies would […]
South Koreans aren’t candid about their views on unification
As every visitor to Korea knows, there are two words which have exceptionally positive connotations in modern political Korean parlance. One is ‘nation’ (minjok), and the other is ‘unification’ (t’ongil). Indeed, more or less every Korean will assure a foreign interlocutor that unification of North and South should be seen as the supreme political goal […]
East Asian community won’t be easy to come
Scholars of South Korea, Japan and China exchange talks under the theme of Building East Asian Community and its Prospects in the second East Asian Community Forum held at the International Studies Hall in Korea University on May 25, 2012. (Photo: Kim Nam-ju) From time to time, another meeting of East Asian leaders produces waves of optimism about the […]
NK’s move to control Sakhalin Koreans foiled
The former Soviet Union was home to the world’s fourth largest overseas Korean community. At the time of the break of the Soviet Union in 1991, some 450,000 of its inhabitants were of Korean heritage. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the population of ethnic Koreans was split between the successor states with the […]
Authenticity of alleged Kim Jong-un’s reform-mindedness
In this Sunday, April 15, 2012 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a mass military parade in Kim Il Sung Square to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, North Korea. <AP/Newsis> North Korea is currently undergoing its third-generation dynastic succession, and this produced a great […]
NK will launch ‘satellite’ despite sanction threat
In this March 20, 2012 file satellite image taken and provided by GeoEye, a satellite launch pad in Tongchang-ri, Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province, North Korea, is shown. <File photo: AP/Newsis> So, it seems to be fairly certain: in near future North Korea will launch what they describe as a “satellite” and what the outside […]
NK nuclear issue: No early solution
It seems that, after few months of hibernation, something is happening again in regard to the North Korean nuclear issue. The officials from the United States and North Korea met in Beijing Friday to discuss, citing a press report, a probability of restarting nuclear disarmament in return for aid. We have heard this many times, […]
Mediabias On North Korea
North Korea does not get much good press in the global media. Its image is that of a bizarre, irrational and dangerously unpredictable place which is run by control freaks who ensure that every North Korean is a master of goose stepping and grenade throwing. If these stories are to be believed, the country lives […]
N. Korea Kim Jong-un and Boris Yeltsin
North Korea has suddenly got a new leader. Predictably enough, people want to make sense of this sudden change and many Pyongyangologists (admittedly, not a large group) look into their crystal balls in an attempt to guess what line the newNorth Korean strongman will take. When dealing with all of these predictions, one has to […]
Four Survival Rules for a Young Dictator
So, Marshal Kim Jong Il, the lodestar of the 21st century, is dead, and his impoverished country is going to be run by his son Kim Jong Un, who might be the world’s youngest four-star general. This sudden power transfer produced much speculation about North Korea’s future. Will the country survive? If so, what will […]
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: 
