In this commentary, Byung Kwang Park, Director of the Center for International Cooperation at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), writes on the impact the U.S.-China strategic competition has had on the two Koreas. Escalating tensions between the U.S. and China have not only aggravated political instability in East Asia, but also n...

Kim Yo-jong has risen as a key figure in North Korean leadership as Chairman Kim Jong-un’s strategic partner over the recent years. In this Research Review, Helene Kim, Visiting Researcher at the Reunification Institute of Ewha Womans University, analyzes Kim Yo-jong’s leadership through motive imagery analysis. The author claims that Kim Yo-jo...

The following Research Review contains a summary of a chapter from the book North Korean Women, Leading Change. In this Research Review, Mi-ju Kim, lecturer at the Department of North Korean Studies and a research fellow at the Institute for Unification Studies of Ewha Womans University, looks into the human rights infringements North Kore...

The following Research Review contains a summary of the article “Changes in North Korea’s Financial System During the Kim Jong Un Era: Based on North Korean Literature,” co-authored by Minjung Kim and Sung Min Moon of the Bank of Korea. In this Research Review, Minjung Kim, an economist in the Economic Research Institute at Bank of Korea, dis...

Although South Korean and North Korean comedies both originated from theatrical features of the Japanese colonial era, the two comedies have diverged into distinct forms of art after the Korean War. In this Special Report, Young Jeong Park, Adjunct Professor at the University of North Korean Studies, compares and contrasts comedies of the two Korea...

Notwithstanding an international ban on ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests, Pyongyang has launched seven ballistic missiles since January 2022. In this Special Report, Cheol-Wun Jang, Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, lays out the status of North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and the implications ...

Initially imported from Japan, the concept of naturalism has had a complex history on the war-torn terrain of the Korean peninsula. In this Special Report, Kab-Woo Koo, Professor at the University of North Korean Studies, discusses the different ways in which South and North Korean governments and literary circles received the literary concept of n...

As part of the Global NK Zoom & Connect project, the East Asia Institute (President Yul Sohn) held “North Korea in 2022: Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s Message and the Korean Peninsula." This webinar analyzed and forecasted North Korea's strategy in 2022 based on New Years' messages from the plenary meeting of the central committee of North Korean ...

In June 2021, North Korea submitted a Voluntary National Review (VNR) and reported its progress on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. North Korea’s submission of the 2021 VNR report, the first to be submitted, shows its desire to participate as a member of the international community and allows for the provision of...

Following its appearance in a sensational series of tourism promotion videos, Leenalchi Band caught the eyes of the global audience. Well-known for its song “Tiger is Coming,” the band’s music fuses pansori with pop sounds – a rare combination of genres. In this commentary, Su-hyun Kim, Research Professor at Dankook University Acad...