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Andrei Lankov

First 6 months of Kim Jong-un

So, half a year has passed since the “Dear Leader,” “Marshall (posthumously promoted to Generalissimo)” Kim Jong-il departed this world. Now is as good a time as any to try to make some sense of the policies of his son, who has been at the helm of the country ever since.

2012-07-15 16:03

How North Koreans live

When we talk about North Korea and its political actions ― missiles, nuclear tests and the like ― we also tend to overlook that North Korea is, above all, a country and hence populated by people who, in spite of all the political turbulence, somehow manage to continue with their normal lives.

2012-07-01 17:14

Im Su-kyong ― then, and now

A major scandal recently hit Korean politics. Newly-elected Assemblywoman Lim Su-kyung found herself in the spotlight for going ballistic during a chance encounter with a North Korean refugee.

2012-06-17 17:23

'Normal' North Korea

If you asked me what surprised me the most when I arrived in North Korea for the very first time. I’d say the fact that the place looked normal ― surprisingly so.

2012-06-03 16:54

Lessons from Germany

When talking about countries divided by communist and capitalist forces in the 1940s, two examples usually come to mind ― Korea and Germany. There were other cases of course, including Vietnam and China, but Germany and Korea are perhaps the two most talked about.

2012-05-20 16:59

Uranium or plutonium?

It seems likely that the third North Korean nuclear test will take place soon ― perhaps, in a matter of days or weeks. There are signs of preparation at the test site, and it would fit into a well-established pattern: a test of a long-range rocket is usually followed by a nuclear test.

2012-05-06 17:07

Post-unification nationalism

North Korea is a deeply nationalistic regime, and its nationalism has deep historical roots. To start with, East Asian communists of the 1920s and 1930s were quite nationalistic. Then, from the 1950s onwards, the North Korean leadership encouraged nationalism as a way to keep some distance from their troublesome patrons in Moscow and Beijing. Finally, with the Communist Bloc crumbling in the early 1990s, Pyongyang’s rulers chose nationalism as the main way to justify their continued reign.

2012-04-22 17:06

On March 16, the North Korean government announced that it would, in mid-April, conduct what it described as the launch of a satellite. The world was not impressed. This decision was, after all, made in open defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions which prohibit the North from conducting tests implying the use of ballistic missile technology.

2012-04-08 17:00

Education about N. Korea

What are South Korean children told about North Korea? How has the North been presented in South Korean education? These are important issues since in many ― if not most ― cases one’s worldview is determined by what he or she learned at school.

2012-03-25 16:40

New breed of N. Koreans

The present author has never made secret his views regarding the future of the North Korean regime: I believe that in the long run, it is doomed. There are many things which are likely to eventually bring the Kim family down, and one of them is the generational shift.

2012-03-11 17:02

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