USinKorea alerted me to this Time story on North Korea, “The Sopranos State,” an expose on the “the North’s Mafia-style businesses.” Also an interesting side note about the former U.S. Naval station at Subic Bay in the Philippines.
On Friday (13 July) North Korea proposed direct military talks with the U.S., referring to, “for the purpose of discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula.” This is alluding to a formal peace treaty to replace the armistice that has been in place since 1953. By asking for [...]
Earlier reports in April on the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST, stated the new joint university would open in September 2007 with an initial class of 150 MBA students. If North Korea actually allows the project – financed by “unabashedly Christian” backers – to continue as planned, up to 2,600 undergraduate and [...]
No doubt a large part of the reason North Korean authorities recently cracked down on foreign media is the influx of South Korean entertainment, a.k.a. the “Korea Wave.”
North Korean defector “A” could sense changes back home when she got in touch with her nineteen-year-old daughter she left behind in the North. While updating her, [...]
Asia Times: The world according to Pyongyang (Andrei Lankov) [MUST READ]
Time: The Sopranos State
JoongAng Ilbo: North urged to halt public execution
Reuters: North Korea proposes military talks with U.S.: KCNA
Bloomberg: In Kim’s NK, Cars Are Scarce Symbols of Power, Wealth
AFP: Denmark says North Korean refugees want to get to South Korea
Japan Today: Hill [...]
Gizmodo has an excellent array of Kim Jong-il photos; In Which We Provoke Kim Jong Il in 77 Offensive and Hilarious Ways. Some are sure to become often used classics.
- #Missed it on the 30th as I was working late, but it's now been four years since DPRK Studies has been in blog format.
- #From the Japan Times: "Yasushi Chimura and his wife, Fukie, abducted by North Korea in 1978 but repatriated in 2002, expressed relief Friday that their children [now ages 27, 25, and 21] are adapting smoothly to Japanese life as they marked the fifth anniversary of their arrival in Japan."
- #Via the NYT: "Former President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea, who had been under criminal investigation for corruption, died on Saturday from a fall while hiking on a hill near his retirement home... it was unclear whether the fall was accidental or whether Mr. Roh had committed suicide ... Roh left a will, indicating that the death might have been a suicide." While the man never should have been president, it's sad to see what likely was a suicide.
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