North Korea

North Korea’s politics defeats Covid … almost
North Korea’s politics defeats Covid … almost
In late April this year, North Korea finally succumbed to one of its most tenacious adversaries: Covid-19. The hermit kingdom’s first wave of the virus, which has been circulating…
China, Russia and North Korea: the wars that never end
China, Russia and North Korea: the wars that never end
Book review: Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea, by Katie Stallard (OUP, 2022) In Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, in north-east Saint…
Russia and North Korea: never waste a good crisis
Russia and North Korea: never waste a good crisis
North Korea and Russia appear to be strengthening ties amid Russia’s increasing isolation from much of the world following its invasion of Ukraine. And with North Korea low on…
Koreas: The hidden risk of the “kill chain”
Koreas: The hidden risk of the “kill chain”
In a move to prove that the age of appeasing North Korea is over, South Korea’s newly-inaugurated president Yoon Suk-yeol has quickly moved to revive a “Kill Chain” strategy…
Contingency plans: South Korea and cross-Strait security
Contingency plans: South Korea and cross-Strait security
The importance of “peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait featured in joint statements issued after US President Joe Biden’s meetings in May with South Korean President…
Patiently waiting for North Korea’s next nuclear test
Patiently waiting for North Korea’s next nuclear test
Is North Korea going to test a nuclear weapon, or not? The question has reverberated since March, when the supposed hawk Yoon Suk-yeol succeeded Moon Jae-in as South Korea’s…
The Pyongyang problem for the Quad
The Pyongyang problem for the Quad
North Korea at least waited until US President Joe Biden had left Asia before launching another volley of missiles to splash into the sea. American officials had braced for a…
Lies, damn lies, and North Korea’s Covid statistics
Lies, damn lies, and North Korea’s Covid statistics
More than two years since North Korea locked down its border in January 2020 and went on to record zero Covid-19 cases and deaths across all the months since, the country last…
For North Korea, military parades come before the people’s wellbeing
For North Korea, military parades come before the people’s wellbeing
A military parade in the streets of Pyongyang last month gave North Korea another chance to show off its new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile while marking the 90th…
Bellicose or bluster? How South Koreans see the North’s nuclear threat
Bellicose or bluster? How South Koreans see the North’s nuclear threat
Do South Koreans view North Korea’s nuclear weapons as a threat? In addition to North Korea ratcheting up missile tests this year, including the first by an intercontinental…