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The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

Andrei Lankov

Back to personality cult

Talk of coming change in North Korea, so loud and audible as recently as August and September, has all but disappeared in the past two months.

2012-12-02 17:25

Different world of jobs in NK

Westerners or, for that matter, South Koreans are always impressed when they are told that somebody in North Korea is a medical doctor.

2012-11-18 17:28

Slow-down of reforms

A couple of months ago, many a North Korea watcher, including my humble self, suddenly found themselves in an exciting situation as strange things began to happen in Pyongyang.

2012-11-04 17:11

Little justice in N. Korea

One of the questions a Korean-speaking visitor to North Korea is likely to encounter in a private conversation with a local is “What happened to the Party and security functionaries of East Germany after reunification?” This question shows one of the most important, and perhaps the defining feature, of the North Korean apparatchik’s collective world view ― a fear of the future.

2012-10-21 17:06

Unlikely Dissidents in N. Korea?

Over the last decade or so, we have been sometimes told stories about the North Korean underground, its resistance groups and the samizdat that they publish inside the reclusive nation.

2012-10-07 17:11

Reforms and nukes

In recent months, it appears increasingly likely that the North Korean government is gradually switching to a reformist path, largely in emulation of China.

2012-09-23 17:07

China-N. Korea economic ties

In late August, a high level North Korean delegation went to China. The country was represented by none other than Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of “Supreme Leader” Marshall Kim Jong-un. While the inner structure of the North Korean leadership remains obscure to outside observers, it seems plausible that Chang is the chief advisor to Kim Jong-un. Therefore, his trip to China is bound to have been highly significant.

2012-09-09 17:20

Rationing system in N. Korea

It was reported recently, that ― obviously, following a reformist drive, the North Korean leaders decided to scale down the rationing system. In order to understand the significance of this change, we must keep in mind that for a few decades North Korea was a society where rationing was taken to a logical extreme.

2012-08-26 17:12

Welcome signs of change

The present author has to start with an admission: for the last two decades I have been highly sceptical every time the international media talks of imminent reform within North Korea. I was not merely sceptical ― in many cases I enjoyed mocking those who prophesied that in the near future North Korea would finally do the right thing and become a mini-version of economically thriving China.

2012-08-12 17:40

Women in North Korea

In most post-socialist nations, the collapse of the state socialist system had a rather ambiguous impact on the social and economic position of women.

2012-07-29 17:26

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