South Korea’s dark history still unresolved
To be fair, some events, such as the Kwangju Massacre, are commemorated regularly. But the official memory is selective. A story recently broke by the Associated Press (AP) showed a remarkable example....
View ArticleSanctions did not stop North Korea’s sallow sustenance in 2017
Happenings in trade between North Korea and China are sometimes taken as a clear indication of a change in Chinese policy that does not exist. When media outlets learned about a several day closure of...
View ArticleThe true impact of North Korean sanctions
The question of how North Korea is faring under sanctions is often asked without defining what is being measured. Some of these discussions seem more about making a judgment on US President Donald...
View ArticleNorth Korea: out of the frying pan, into the fire
As elsewhere in the world, COVID-19 has influenced almost all aspects of North Korean governance. Official sources have acknowledged only thousands of ‘suspected’ cases. But anecdotal evidence of...
View ArticleNorth Korea goes back to its roots and into 2023
There were strong indications that China was easing up on enforcing the UN sanctions that ban it from importing North Korean coal, as well as the sanctions that prevent it from exporting oil products...
View ArticleThe complicated truth about sanctions on North Korea
North Korea is under one of the harshest multilateral sanctions regimes of any country in the world. But the country still circumvents sanctions regularly through complex smuggling operations at which...
View ArticleNorth Korea’s economy in retrograde
In 2023, North Korea intensified its political and economic development. Pyongyang is going back to its historical roots, dedicating economic resources to the heavy industries where it has a...
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