Korea, North

For the first Korean Kontext podcast of 2017, five members of the KEI staff sat down with host Jenna Gibson for a chat about the volitility of 2016 and what…

The last several rounds of UN sanctions against the DPRK have been called the "strongest ever," and the new sanctions passed on November 30 are no different. There are some…

More than 100 million Americans cast their ballots on November 8, and we have a new president-elect. The Trump victory came as a surprise to most, with polls and pundits…

In this episode, which originally aired in 2011, we hear from author Mike Kim, who speaks with Korean Kontext about his experiences living and working with North Korean refugees on…

By Caleb Cho In early June, a North Korean agent was arrested by Chinese authorities in Dandong, China, the largest border city facing North Korea, due to a number of fake 100 U.S. dollar bills exchanged for Chinese currency at two Chinese banks. The total amount of his deposit was reportedly $ 5 million worth,…

By William Brown Second quarter trade data recently released by China, and April and May data released by other major trading countries, suggest the March 2 UN sanctions are having little impact so far on North Korea’s economy although they may be making Pyongyang even more dependent on China.  Trade with countries except China seems…

By Phil Eskeland Last week, we looked at the Republican Party platform.  This week, the Democratic Party is meeting to nominate its candidate for president and vice president.  Part of the agenda for the convention includes formal approval of the party platform.  As mentioned in the previous post, candidates are not bound by the platform,…

By Jenna Gibson  Every language has "untranslatable words" - a word that perfectly encapsulates a feeling or situation which lacks an exact equivalent in other languages. German's "schadenfreude" famously describes the feeling of deriving pleasure from another person's pain. Korean has plenty of these words. Some commonly cited examples are 정 (jung), a deep love…

Please join KEI for a discussion on North Korea’s potential incorporation of AI into its cyber arsenal.