• 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…

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  • Column

    International Students Breaking Down Barriers

    Being invited to the farewell party held by the Non-Resident Nepalese Association of Korea for the Ambassador H.E. Kamal Prasad Koirala as a representative of KISSA (Korea International Students Support Association), I found myself being immersed in yet another culture. Besides a small number of Korean participants, I was the…

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  • East Asia

    Soft Power is Telling on the Generation Y

      North Koreans are in deep mourning, bereaved of their father figure Kim Jong Il. They have grown up knowing only one leader, first Kim Il Sung, the founder of the political dynasty,and then his son Kim Jong Il, who died last week. The leadership mantle has been handed down…

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  • 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…

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  • East Asia

    South Korea President’s Mourning

    Whether to mourn or not the passing of Chairman Kim Jong-il of North Korea is a controversial issue in South Korea but the government seems have a rather flexible approach. In 1994, the head of the opposition party Lee Bu-young suggested official mourning in regard to the death of Kim…

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  • East Asia

    Suggestions for the North Korean Successor

    When the news media was broadcasting the news of North Korea’s beloved leader Kim Jong-il’s death due to a heart attack, at that time I was at a South Korean metro station waiting for a train. At a nearby restaurant where people were having lunch, I witnessed some kind of…

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  • Column

    Dear HE Muto Masatoshi, the Japanese Ambassador to Korea

    Your Excellency, As the end of year approaches, everyone moves at a fast pace to wrap up the rest of the year. I would like to express my respect to you for putting much effort for developing amicable relations between Korea and Japan. I would like to ask you for…

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  • Column

    Coolgogi···Internationalising Asian Flavours the Korean Journey

    Eat a branding exercise A cliché for starters – the world is getting smaller. In one fell swoop and with one great invention called the internet – physical and imaginary mysterious social borders have all come crashing down. Everyone on the net wants to be a cool citizen of the…

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  • Politics

    Libyan Revolution and North Korea

    So,Colonel Gaddafi is dead, and the Libyan revolution has succeeded. Its triumph is usually presented in the Western media as another great victory of democracy. It remains to be seen to what extent this optimism is warranted. But there is little doubt that news from Libya has further complicated the…

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  • AJA, Welcomes the Resigning Yemeni President

    Asia Journalist Association(AJA) welcomes the resigning Yemeni president Asia Journalist Association (President Ivan Lim) announced a statement to welcome the resignation of the Yemeni President after 33 years in power. The Association said, “We expect the flames of democratization first started in Tunisia and then moved to Egypt, Libya and…

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