Purpose: This site is intended as a resource for those interested in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea - the DPRK, or North Korea - and to promote awareness of North Korean security, social, political, and historical issues. This is attempted by providing commentary and analysis on related events, and by acting as a portal to some of the most pertinent news, research, opinion, and organizations covering North Korea. The site has been around in one form or another since 2000, though as a blog only since May 2005. Domains that will get you here; dprkstudies.org, northkoreanstudies.org, and nkstudies.org.

Longtime readers, or those who browse the archives, might note that the pace of posting has dropped considerably since 2008, primarily due to personal commitments that reduced time to blog.

[Update: As of October I'm taking a break from posting, with exceptions made for significant events. Almost anything could happen within North Korea's normal cycle of behavior (a DPRK OODA loop of sorts);

- Create a situation that creates tension with the U.S. and/or South Korea
- Blame the other side for the situation
- Agree to approve relations, sign some agreements to that effect, claim credit for such
- After the agreement has been made, refuse to implement if new preconditions aren't met
- Draw out negotiations to absurd timeframes
- Blame the other side for the lack of progress, add more preconditions for implementing previous agreements
- Rinse. Repeat.]

Editor: I (Richardson) have over decade of experience working Korea-related issues. Currently - and unfortunately - in the DC metro area.

Guest Author: James Na was formerly a senior foreign policy fellow at Discovery Institute in Seattle and Washington, DC and a recurring guest columnist at The Seattle Times and RealClearPolitics. He also served as a senior advisor to the president of the Leadership Institute in Arlington, VA.

Comments: Comments should relate to the post and should not simply point to another website or blog, which will be treated as spam. Being off-topic (remember, the main focus here is North Korea), being overly disrespectful, engaging in ad hominem, or vulgarity likely will result in the offending comments being edited or deleted, and may result in that commenter’s following comments being moderated or banned.

Copyright: Links to the blog and posts are always welcome, as are extensive use of quotes from DPRK Studies – as long as they are sourced with, at a minimum, a link to this site. However, using text from DPRK Studies posts without sourcing is not permitted. Likewise, posting the entire content of individual posts or pages from this site at other blogs or sites (including sites like archive dot org) is not permitted.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed by us on this blog are ours respectively and do not necessarily represent the views of our employers or any organizations we are affiliated with. Although we share a common interest in Korea, we do not represent each other and are only responsible for the specific posts we write individually.