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France’s long and complicated relationship with North Korea
While France is just one of two European countries yet to formally recognize North Korea, a number of groups there have been hard working to change this point since the late 1960s. Indeed, formal...
View ArticleThe strange story of one Korean War POW
The fury of the Korean War raged all around Private First Class Jack Arakawa on July 16, 1950. In hastily prepared defensive positions outside the South Korean town of Taejon, his unit watched grimly...
View ArticleHow North Korea has been arming Palestinian militants for decades
Pyongyang has fewer foreign embassies than many other capitals, but the DPRK’s showcase city is home to one that even Washington lacks: Palestine. Since the early 1960s, North Korea has staunchly...
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Two Koreas to resume joint excavation of ancient palace
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification on Monday announced plans to resume the inter-Korean project of conducting an archaeological excavation of Manwoldae Palace in the North Korean border city of...
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North Korea and Ethiopia, brothers in arms
North Korea ranks among the most prolific arms-exporting nations of the world. With virtually every one of its weapons systems available for sale, Pyongyang remains popular among low-budget...
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North Korea’s 42 ton black-market alcohol imports in Pakistan
Due largely to inadequate government funding, North Korean diplomats posted abroad have long resorted to “creative” solutions to generate their operating budgets. The North Korean government set up the...
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Funding a DPRK diplomatic deficit: Cigarettes, alcohol and hashish
In 1975, Japan’s External Trade Organization (JETRO), conducted a study that found North Korea with a $600 million trade deficit to Western countries. It paved the way for North Korea to become the...
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Manchuria: The third Korea
It is obvious now that there are two Koreas in the world. There is another area, though, that is often referred to as the third Korea: large parts of Northeast China, near the Sino-Korean border, where...
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Manchuria and North Korea-China relations
In 1945 the Japanese empire collapsed and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo followed its sponsor into oblivion. Technically, the area then known as “Manchuria” was returned to China after a short...
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How Yanbian became a meeting place for both Koreas
The early 1990s can be seen as a turning point in the history of the Yanbian area in general and its relations with North Korea in particular. Many different, if somewhat related, events produced these...
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The North’s history of stagnant development
In the third year of the Kim Jong Un era, the DPRK’s domestic propaganda has been amplifying a recurring theme: scientific and technological innovation as a fast track to economic development. The...
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Koreans on Sakhalin: The misadventures of migrant workers
It is widely known that roughly half a million ethnic Koreans live in the former Soviet Union. It is less well-known, though, that the Soviet Korean community essentially consists of two distinct...
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Why Russian Koreans didn’t fall for Pyongyang propaganda
By the mid-1950s, some 40,000 ethnic Koreans lived on the island of Sakhalin – then a newly acquired part of the Soviet Union (the southern part of the island was transferred from Japan in 1945). Most...
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The story of the Sakhalin Korean rebellion
In December 1976, the sleepy city of Korsakov, on the southern-most tip of Sakhalin island, witnessed a picture that few if any Soviet cities outside Moscow or Leningrad would see in the days of...
View ArticleHow the Sakhalin Koreans became Russian
This is the conclusion to a four-part series on Russia’s Sakhalin Korean community and its relations with North Korea. To see the previous installments click here, here and here. The deportation of 48...
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The diminishing role of Soviet help in Pyongyang propaganda
As we know, the North Korea was created as a result of the Soviet-Japanese War, after the USSR declared war on the Empire of Japan in August 1945 and, according its agreement with other Allies,...
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North Korea and Libya: friendship through artillery
The Libyan Army was once feared amongst its Arab neighbors with its capabilities shrouded in mystery. Media streams from the country after the revolution now offer a rare insight into this previously...
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The ill-fated Sinuiju special region
North Korea declares that one her cities will become a special zone. There will be no censorship there, all media will be free and freedom of speech will be secured. The economic system will be...
View ArticleUnification-pop: When South Korean singers looked North for inspiration
Long before Psy became a national culture hero with “Gangnam Style” and boy bands with bling attracted enormous crowds, the originators of K-pop sang about something that seemed a lot more important...
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Riding the tiger of nationalism in North Korea
The view that state-sponsored nationalism has played a major (or even decisive) role in the persistence of the North Korean political system has been expressed by a wide range of scholars, such as...
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