Korea, North

      Since the famine of the 1990s, North Korea has continued to face periods of chronic food shortages. However, the humanitarian needs of the people in North Korea…

    North Korea has engaged in various forms of economic reforms and marketization attempts such as establishing Special Economic Zones and obtaining Foreign Direct Investment. Yet, many of North…

  In this episode, we talk with Dr. Adam Cathcart of the University of Leeds and of Sino-NK about China-North Korea relations. Dr. Cathcart has just written an Academic Paper Series report…

    In the mid-1990s, North Korea experienced a famine that by some estimates wiped out 10 percent of the population. Though many at the time thought the regime would…

What Happened On February 9, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification discussed potentially reopening the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un agreed to reopen the complex in 2018. However, North Korea has not shown any willingness to cooperate on inter-Korean issues at the moment, including the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Implications: Despite South Korea’s offer of economic…

By Robert R. King The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service a few days ago published a working paper updating and reassessing international food security in the decade 2020-2030 in light of the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The report focuses on 76 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin American which are most…

For North Korea to return to some semblance of its pre-COVID existence it will need to vaccinate its population, but acquiring the necessary vaccines will not be the only challenge North Korea faces. Once North Korea has acquired a vaccine to begin dosing its population, it will still need to have a proper cold chain…

A three-hour military parade and a fireworks display in Pyongyang on January 14 punctuated the end of the 8th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea.  The 8th Congress, which lasted eight days, was the first such high party gathering since 2016 and only the second since the 6th Congress was held in 1980.  Such…

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