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Korean democracy at a crossroads
The surprise resignation of a South Korean prosecutor following a media witch-hunt critics say was masterminded by the internal intelligence service highlights a revival of a notorious agency President Park Geun-hye had promised to neuter through reform. Unless Park now fulfills those commitments, the shadow of her father's dictatorship will continue to loom over her presidency. - Geoffrey Fattig
(Oct 3, '13)
Dangers in North Korean dual-track strategy
North Korea appears to have softened its approach to the outside world. Yet as confrontation makes way to moves towards dialogue, Pyongyang plans to boost the economy while strengthening nuclear capacity. Such a combination will only bring more potential for an East Asian arms race - and kill hopes for achieving the security guarantees needed to denuclearize the peninsula. - Niklas Swanstrom
(Sep 27, '13)
The real North Korean threat
Irresponsible farming by desperate North Koreans is leading to a spread of desert and semi-desert regions that, as much the North's nuclear posturing, could threaten the future of South Korea and Northeast Asia. Only long-term international engagement and cooperation can bring the North's ecosystem back from the brink of a catastrophe that will affect generations. - Emanuel Pastreich
(Sep 26, '13)
The day Kim Il-sung died his first death
On a winter's day in 1986, loudspeakers on the North Korean side of the no-man's land that divides the Korean Peninsula began broadcasting news that Great Leader Kim Il-sung had been shot dead. The news died its death two days later when Kim appeared alive and well (he was to die eight years later). The mystery of the morbid propaganda lives on. - Fyodor Tertitskiy
(Sep 25, '13)
Southern inhospitality greets defectors
Framed by South Korea as spies and then thrown into detention, many North Korean defectors face some of the same mistreatment they sought to escape. As the South's media whips up more public paranoia about infiltrators, sentiment is increasingly veering away from a more transparent vetting process and towards the tightening of borders. - Markus Bell and Sarah Chee
(Sep 20, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
US needs cultural weapons for North Korea
The United States' reliance on feeble sanctions and China to try to denuclearize North Korea have only seen Pyongyang accelerate profit-making enterprises from its nuclear weapons programs. A better chance of normalizing relations lies in encouraging educational and cultural exchanges; when North Korean elites start to see richer people in other countries, the jealousy spurred could lead a revolt with power behind it. - Brian Min
(Sep 19, '13)
UN finds North Korea atrocities 'unspeakable'
Michael Kirby, the head of a UN probe into human rights abuses in North Korea, has challenged the Kim Jong-eun regime to disprove "unspeakable atrocities" uncovered in North Korea after Pyongyang alleged stories of abductions, torture and prison camp punishments had been fabricated. - Joshua Lipes
(Sep 19, '13)
Pet projects put Kim on a slippery slope
A water park North Korea is building near China likely aims at boosting Kim Jong-eun's image among the common people, unlike projects such as a ski resort seemingly devised as a haven for the elites. As few North Koreans are likely to ever take to the water slides or the slopes, such projects will simply bemuse comrades on both sides of the divide. - Joon-ho Kim
(Sep 3, '13)
A bright spell in the Korean Peninsula
On the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, there is reason for guarded optimism that a peaceful resolution of tensions between the North and South is achievable. Still, despite positive developments such as family reunions and a pledge to keep open an economic zone between the two sides, a nuclear cloud looms. - Joseph R DeTrani
(Aug 26, '13)
Anti-North Korea? No, we're pro
Critics who judge the online news outlets that have sprung up covering North Korea as "anti-North" are missing the point in the same way that many Pyongyang watchers have done for decades. Far from being against the country or its population, those who are best informed on the North can envision a brighter, post-regime future. - Aidan Foster-Carter
(Aug 16, '13)
Koreas agree to reopen Kaesong
North and South Korea have agreed to restart the jointly operated Kaesong industrial park, languishing since April, following a pledge from Pyongyang not to shut it down again. The deal comes as the US and the South prepare for annual military exercises.
(Aug 15, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Defamation and dissent in South Korea
South Korea's over reliance on its National Security Act as an instrument of censorship has seen a legal tool designed to shield individuals intrude upon important public debates. While not solely used to protect the powerful from criticism, it is proving too easy to manipulate the law to sanction and chill political discourse. - Taylor Washburn
(Aug 13, '13)
Doors slam on North Korean refugees
China cites concerns over drug smuggling, human trafficking, and military "accidents and incidents", in erecting miles of barbed-wire fences along the Tumen River border with North Korea. The stronger security appears aimed more at preventing North Korean refugees from escaping, though the most likely result will be to ramp up agents' fees for assisting in the dangerous crossing. - Jung Min Noh
(Aug 7, '13)
China and Korea: A change of partners?
North Korea is scowling from the sidelines as Seoul and Beijing create new rapport on trade and even politics. The shift south by Xi Jinping, frustrated at Pyongyang's repeated rejection of advice to adapt to the modern world, could mark a significant break from a decades-old alliance. Or the Chinese president could be seeking to lure his South Korean counterpart into loosening the United States' tight embrace. - Aidan Foster-Carter
(Aug 7, '13)
China debates how to handle North Korea
North Korea's wayward behavior has triggered a policy debate in China and calls from some quarters for the new leaders in Beijing to abandon a longtime socialist ally. They are more likely to respond to extreme moves that offend China's interests and will make the North correct them. Still, the fundamental question remains whether the North should be handled as a buffer zone or a time bomb. - Ren Xiao
(Jul 23, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Tough test awaits Korean education
Centuries of obsession with status and prestige make it a wrench for the Korean education system to consider abandoning its regimented neo-Confucian structure in favor of progressive liberal methods, However, the choice is between a grade-grinding system that's become a zero-sum game pitting student against student and another that would see Korea produce more world citizens. - Taru Taylor
(Jul 11, '13)
COMMENT
Competitive suffering harms Korea debate
Defiant suggestions that the US prison system is no better than North Korea's gulags ignore that there is a fundamental inconvertibility to suffering. A Cold War-like pathology of one-sided condemnation continues to thrive despite the fact that human-rights violations are happening East and West, North and South. - John Feffer
(Jul 10, '13)
North Korea border roster hampers defection
North Korea's drive to prevent corruption by more frequently changing the guards posted along its border with China has made it harder for would-be defectors to escape. Tighter border controls under Kim Jong-eun have cut the flow of defectors that reach South Korea, the government in Seoul has said.
(Jul 2, '13)
Koreas roiled by great power shifts
The alluring prospect of an end to the China-US rivalry raised by last week's successful Sunnylands summit has momentous implications for South and North Korea. The decline in Washington's regional clout requires that Seoul strengthen its strategic autonomy and extract itself from a zero-sum game with Beijing. Faced with a increasingly strong Middle Kingdom, Pyongyang must rethink its saber-rattling. - Sukjoon Yoon
(Jun 21, '13)
Rank row puts full stop to Korean talks
Just as North Korea was reversing its raving nuclear lunacy, offering a slew of concessions as part of rare senior-level talks on topics including tourism and business ventures, a hissy fit sparked by the South over who should lead the delegations has led to an early abortion of the process. Perhaps Seoul forgot that rigid formalism won't work with Pyongyang's smoke and mirrors. - Aidan Foster-Carter
(Jun 14, '13)
Empire and trafficking in Northeast Asia
Korean anger at Japanese refusals to apologize for the comfort women of World War II ignore that the trend of human trafficking in the region hardly ended when Tokyo capitulated in 1945. When the United States took over as a builder of empire in Asia, it too created a network of vice with social and demographic impacts that reverberate today. - Markus Bell
(Jun 5, '13)
North Korea common ground for US, China
Tensions over the US's military build-up in the Asia-Pacific will test President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, as they meet this week. With North Korea's nuclear developments, missile launches and threats irritating both countries, the heads of state have an opportunity in Washington to find common ground. - George Gao
(Jun 4, '13)
Politicians key to Korean denuclearization
The hardline advisers who convinced Kim Jong-eun to pursue reckless brinkmanship believed it would secure de jure recognition of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, potentially causing a proliferation nightmare for the West. Instead, they only further isolated and impoverished the country. Kim would do well to listen to the moderate party and military officials he himself installed. - Joseph R DeTrani
(Jun 4, '13)
Six-party soap opera set to restart
Recent talks between Xi Jinping and North Korean envoy Vice Marshall Ch'oe Ryong-hae produced an unexpected result with Pyongyang's agreement to restart the six-party nuclear negotiations that stalled in 2007. When the talking starts, hard facts will likely be glossed as the North is coming back to the table only to placate China. - Andrei Lankov
(May 28, '13)
Tokyo, Seoul hold 'ugly' nuclear option
The strategic consequences of a sustained North Korean nuclear weapons program are immensely troublesome. As neighbors such as South Korea and Japan consider possible countermeasures, they might consider it time to reassess whether nuclear weapons are an option to maintain an "ugly stability" in the region. - Tahir Mahmood Azad
(May 23, '13)
A scar that stretches across continents
The death last week of former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla resonated with South Korean victims of their countries' past dictatorships, particularly as an Argentine human-rights group was coincidentally visiting Seoul to receive a human-rights award for work on ending Videla's impunity. Though separated by thousands of kilometers, the tales of the "disappeared" and the oppressed are strikingly familiar. - Stephanie Wildes
(May 23, '13)
Are Kaesong curtains drawn for good?
Those Pyongyang watchers who insist there is a calculated strategy behind its escalation of tensions likely find it hard to explain the rationale behind its closure of the Kaesong industrial complex. In sacrificing the joint complex, Kim Jong-eun hoped to show his steel and scotch a potential source of ideological contamination. But such moves simply open the door to Chinese domination of the economy. - Aidan Foster-Carter
(May 20, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Chinese opinion jars with policy on Korea
An unexpectedly significant outburst of anger from China's elite at North Korea's brazen provocations may be enough to require that Beijing try to harmonize public opinion and foreign policy on the issue. If Beijing bows to the public demands and cracks down on Pyongyang this time, it could undermine the government's ability to censor debate on internal issues.- Niklas Swanstrom and Kelly Chen
(May 17, '13)
In Tehran, all eyes are on North Korea
Beneath North Korea's recent bellicosity there is a rational and strategic plan to challenge America's standard operating procedure for dealing with "rogue" states with credible military deterrents. That's reason enough for Iran, itself subject to economic sanctions, isolation, and containment, to watch carefully how the US handles peninsular tensions. - Giorgio Cafiero and Shawn VL
(May 15, '13)
COMMENT
Course correction costs Korea dearly
North Korean leader Kim Jong-eun's early steps toward economic reform and international legitimacy saw him replace many of his father's hardline loyalists. Since the failed launch of a ballistic missile, he has reverted to nuclear threats and confrontation that, far from increasing Pyongyang's standing and chances of extracting aid, only destroy the last shred of credibility. - Joseph R DeTrani
(May 15, '13)
An Austrian deal for North Korea
Like post-Second World War Austria, North Korea is a strategic crossroads for clashing great powers. To replicate Vienna's emergence as a stable and prosperous power, Pyongyang must counterbalance outside pressures with guarantees for military neutrality, while striving for financial independence through economic openness. - Ronnie Blewer
(May 15, '13)
Infantalizing Kim and country
"You don't get to bang your spoon on the table and somehow you get your way," US President Barack Obama said of Kim Jong-eun after the North Korean leader's latest provocations spawned nuclear crisis. As we slowly step back from the edge of conflict, it's time for the West to grow up in its assessment of North Korea as immature and treat it more as an equal. - John Feffer
(May 13, '13)
Glasnost by stealth in North Korea
A relative relaxation of surveillance and control in North Korea this decade, akin to one seen in post-Stalin Russia, will eventually see the regime become the butt of jokes in bedrooms across the land. As connections grow between those who agree the system is moving in the wrong direction - and knowledge of Western affluence seeps in - dissenters will start to outnumber believers. - Andrei Lankov
(May 13, '13)
Kaesong closure tests Korea ties
Seoul has described as "incomprehensible" a list of Pyongyang's demands for reviving the jointly run Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, the most visible symbol of cooperation between the two Koreas. Bradley Babson explores in an interview the impact of the closure. - Changsop Pyon
(May 9, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Pyongyang's crimes lost in power plays
As the international community trains its focus on Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship, the brutal human-rights situation in the country is becoming a forgotten issue. While admonishing the North over threats to regional peace, it is equally important to stop it inflicting more suffering on its citizens. - Nazery Khalid
(May 6, '13)
US misreads South Korean designs
US assumptions that South Koreans view the North as a grave nuclear threat are as misplaced as the belief that they desires immediate reunification. As their new president, Park Geun-hye, visits Washington, most feel increasingly distant from the Hermit Kingdom and would rather see the continuance of a divided, stable peninsula. - Andrei Lankov
(May 6, '13)
China's changing calculus on North Korea
North Korea's advances in nuclear weapons technology and escalation of bellicose rhetoric against the US and its allies have triggered a reassessment of the threat it poses. Even ally China's overall strategic assessment is shifting, as the North goes from being an intermittently problematic entity to a source of regional instability. - David Mulrooney
(Apr 29, '13)
Breaking out the Bush Korea playbook
Current US military and political tactics on North Korea, forged in "axis of evil" days, have short-circuited a diplomatic back-channel strategy that worked well for the Bill Clinton administration and they now threaten to trigger a nuclear war. It isn't lost on Pyongyang or Beijing that "strategic patience" is code for regime change, so steps like deploying yet more anti-missile systems risk a wider war. - Conn Hallinan
(Apr 26, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
What China wants from North Korea
North and South Korea are being relegated to bit-players in peninsular tensions as the contest increasingly becomes another front for their powerful sponsors. China is stoking the East Asian tensions to push US forces away from its coast, in the knowledge that US bases in Taiwan and South Korea have had the Chinese navy covered. - Joel Gibbons
(Apr 26, '13)
BOOK REVIEW
The Real North Korea
The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia
by Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov turns his critical eye on the North Korean system and attempts to do the impossible: describe a country that has spent considerable time and effort defying description. If anyone can have a shot at delivering the goods on the "real North Korea'', he is the man, and with a few exceptions, he does a very good job. - John Feffer
(Apr 22, '13)
COMMENT
Obama-Park summit a critical opportunity
Defense affairs will be at the center of South Korean President Park Geun-hye's first official trip to the United States in May, given North Korea's provocations to both countries. Park and Barack Obama must resolve shortcomings in their countries' alliance if they want to honor those who lost their lives in the Korean War and ensure others don't have to make the same sacrifice. - Scott W Harold
(Apr 18, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
A Chinese nuke umbrella for North Korea?
By offering North Korea a nuclear security commitment against any Western attack, Beijing could encourage Pyongyang to abandon its brinkmanship strategy, play down militarism, and adopt a peaceful developmental policy. The regional stabilization and diplomatic benefits would be felt by East and West, but achieving the ambitious strategy will take China's acceptance and generous US support. - Qingshan Tan
(Apr 15, '13)
COMMENT
The real lessons from North Korea's threats
Kim Jong-eun's fast and furious threats probably indicate that North Korea's Young Marshal is still trying to prove himself to his generals. That's the first lesson from his provocative displays. The second lesson is that history favors freedom, democracy, human rights and liberty - and should Kim choose to use the nuclear option, North Korea will cease to exist. - Chung Min Lee
(Apr 12, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
North Korea: why the world needs a ghoul
Libya's Gaddafi is dead, Venezuela's Chavez too, while Iran's Ahmadinejad will be history after the elections in June - and Myanmar's Thein Sein now wears a suit. Powers need a bad guy for their geopolitical machinations, and it just so happens that there is simply no-one to equal Kim Jong-eun as he morphs from a regional to a global problem. - Hannes Hanso
(Apr 11, '13)
China targets South Korea with soft power
China's forceful condemnation of North Korea's nuclear provocations has brought it closer than ever to the South, just as Seoul was tiring of American reticence in security commitments. With new leaders in both East Asian capitals, the time seems right for blossoming relations. But South Korea is likely playing one suitor against the other. - Sunny Seong-hyon Lee
(Apr 10, '13)
Towards a new Korean war?
North Korea's desperation to make the current crisis appear different from previous impasses suggests a scramble for survival, with bellicose rhetoric and behavior designed to enhance the Kim Jong-eun regime's international status and ensure a smooth power consolidation. With the brinkmanship already lending Kim the aura of a triumphant war leader, it seems his strategy is paying off. - Bruno Hellendorff and Thierry Kellner
(Apr 9, '13)
SINOGRAPH
China walks fine line on Korea
China's determination to prevent North Korea from hijacking Beijing's foreign policy to Pyongyang's advantage has led to harsher than ever condemnations of the Korea's nuclear brinkmanship. But as the North becomes a crucible for East Asian tensions, China needs to think of better ways to manipulate the crisis that will strengthen its regional hand. - Francesco Sisci
(Apr 9, '13)
Korea crisis dims denuclearization hope
The escalation of tensions in the Korean Peninsula is prompting growing calls for the United States to reconsider its refusal to fully engage Pyongyang and notes that a failure to do so risks driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, can only state the obvious as he urges calm on all sides.
- Jim Lobe (Apr 3, '13) |
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ATol Specials
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Kim Comes Out
North Korea's nukes and what they mean
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