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Andrei Lankov

N. Korea‘s first family

The recent promotion of Kim Jong-un, now the “Supreme Leader” of North Korea, has once again confirmed what has been known since the 1970s: North Korea is an absolute monarchy in all but name.

2012-02-26 17:25

Rating Kim Jong-il era

So, the Kim Jong-il era is over. How will it be remembered by Koreans? Perhaps, it will remain in their memory as times of instability and change. Marshal Kim Jong-il’s North Korea was very different from the North Korea which was created by his father, Generalissimo Kim Il-sung.

2012-01-29 17:10

N. Korea’s political calculations

This year, President Lee Myung-bak’s New Year address paid much attention to North Korea issues. The South Korean President warned the North against fresh provocations but the general tone of his speech was conciliatory.

2012-01-15 17:28

Impenetrable North Korea

The last two weeks were quite an annoying experience for the present author in one regard: people asked questions which have no answers, questions about personal politics in Pyongyang.

2012-01-01 17:44

Challenges in post-Kim Jong-il era

Everybody knew that Marshall Kim Jong-il was going to die sooner rather than later. Nonetheless, his death came as a complete surprise to both North Koreans and the outside world. It seems that Kim himself assumed that he would live many more years ― at least he was not as careful in preparing for a power transfer as his father.

2011-12-25 15:12

N. Korea in South’s textbook

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

2011-12-19 17:04

Survival strategy in N. Korea

North Korea is often described as the ``world’s last Stalinist state,” but this description became misleading a long time ago.

2011-12-04 17:22

Still weird and poor

Back in the 1970s, the present author was a teenager in the still Soviet city of Leningrad.

2011-11-20 17:14

No optimism on NK nukes

Is the North Korean nuclear problem solvable? If by a solution we mean the oft-repeated demand for North Korea’s ‘verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,’ then the answer appears to be no.

2011-11-06 17:03

Talks will resume, but …

Last month representatives of North and South Korea met in Beijing to discuss the resumption of nuclear talks.

2011-10-23 17:10

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