North Korea: Witness to Transformation

What are the North Koreans doing?

Marcus Noland — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:37:20 +0000

Considerable attention focused last week on the visit to Pyongyang by Isao Iijima, special assistant to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As I observed in a post last week, the Japanese public places marginally greater concern on abductees than on the North Korean nuclear program and the abductee issue has been a focal point of [...]

The Pyongyang Project Summer Exchange

Alex Melton — Sun, 19 May 2013 11:00:26 +0000

The Pyongyang Project is a Canadian social venture that focuses on travel and educational programs for foreigners and DPRK residents. While many of the group’s educational tours involve trips to Pyongyang, there are some trips that go to other interesting parts of the country. We recently received an advertisement for an upcoming trip that focuses [...]

Taiwan Foundation for Democracy: Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award

Stephan Haggard — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:00:10 +0000

Democracy promotion and human rights diplomacy are often assumed to be American conceits, but we are not alone. Among recently-created democracy efforts, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy deserves mention. Founded in 2003, the Foundation is engaged in a full spectrum of activities, from the practical to the academic (for example, they publish the Taiwan Journal of [...]

What Is Going On in the North Korean Military?

Stephan Haggard — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:33:27 +0000

In a post from last summer, we argued that the military is occupying a larger role within party and state institutions. The events of the last six months—from the satellite launch and nuclear tests, to the particularly furious reaction to UNSC Resolution 2087 and the closing of Kaesong—appear to have military fingerprints on them. At [...]

TB Update

Stephan Haggard — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:19 +0000

Science—if you have access—has recently published an interesting piece by Richard Stone on developments in TB and TB treatment in North Korea. The good news is to be found in the efforts of NGOs such as Christian Friends of Korea and Eugene Bell who have long worked this issue. Christian Friends of Korea has undertaken [...]

The long-term impact of intrauterine exposure to malnutrition

Marcus Noland — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:26:44 +0000

A constantly recurring question is how decades of chronic food insecurity interspersed with food emergencies and even outright famine may affect the long-term physical and mental health of the North Korean people. Since we cannot do direct scientific study of the North Korean population, thinking on this issue is by its very nature speculative. One way [...]

Waiting for Godot: Agricultural Reform Update

Stephan Haggard — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:09 +0000

Following the formal coronation of the Kim Jong Eun in early 2012, a boomlet of optimism followed some purported statements on reform: the so-called June 28 directive (“On the Establishment of a New Economic Management System in our Own Way”) and a speech entitled ““Let Us Effect Kim Jong Il’s Patriotism and Step Up the [...]

Ready for war

Marcus Noland — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:11:53 +0000

I do not know what motivated the North Koreans to repeatedly threaten the US over the last couple of months, but I do know what the effect has been: the threats greatly narrow the Obama Administration’s options going forward, especially with respect to any action that would require Congressional approval. It is particularly difficult for [...]

The Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent: Balloons

Stephan Haggard — Sun, 12 May 2013 11:00:14 +0000

In 2012, the Human Rights Foundation created a new prize with a doubly-great title: the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. Why doubly great? Because we always admired Havel and because the idea of “creative dissent” captures so well the difficult, David vs. Goliath nature of resistance to tyrannical regimes. Asia was strongly represented in [...]

Beat Up the Intellectuals II: Down with Political Science!

Stephan Haggard — Sat, 11 May 2013 11:00:10 +0000

Last week, we wrote a stand-alone post against new sanctions on Iran that require academic journals to turn away submissions from Iranian officials, defined broadly to include scientists and engineers employed by state-owned enterprises. We thought this was a bad idea; science thrives by drawing on the entire human talent pool. Not to engage Iranian [...]