Kim Jong Un has been trying to overcome the triple distress North Korea faces – sanctions against North Korea, natural disasters, and the coronavirus pandemic. In this commentary, EJR Cho, Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), and Tae-Kyung Kim, Associate Research Fellow at the National Assembly Futures Institute...

North Korea reportedly test-fired its new long-range cruise missiles and rail-mobile ballistic missiles four times in September, which successfully hit their respective targets. As the North continues to enhance its nuclear missile capabilities, military threats and arms races among neighboring powers are intensifying. The North claims that prospec...

Global NK Zoom&Connect has met with diverse South Korean researchers who lead the study on North Korea and listened to their voices to understand the current research on North Korea. For this issue, we met with Koh Yu-hwan, the President of the Korea Institute for National Unification, the only national research institute for unification, prosperit...

Following the arrival of anti-DPRK leaflets in North Korea in 2020, North Korea cut all inter-Korean hotlines. The communication hotline between North and South Korea have been reestablished following a one year hiatus on July 27, raising doubts about what North Korea’s intentions behind this move are. While some claim that this update indicated ...

Propaganda, among other tools, is a widely used means by the North Korean government to bolster the basis of its regime. The use of distorted news through inaccurate publications is one way in which propagandistic information is circulated within not only North Korea, but also in foreign countries online. In this commentary, Dr. Sandip Mishra, Asso...

While it may come as a surprise to foreigners unfamiliar with the topic of design in North Korea, North Korea has in fact cultivated its own long heritage of industrial designers who design a variety of items, ranging from stamps to brand logos. According to Hee Sun Choi, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Design at Chung-Ang University Graduat...

Art represents the times in various forms and creats tension with the reality by addressing the nature of problems in it. Then, what about North Korean art? Dr. Hong Ji-seok says that North Korean art has combined socialist content and national form, which led to the Juche (Self-Reliance) Realism, and given birth to the Joseon-pai...

[Project] introduces notable findings among contracted research projects submitted to the government and public institutions. This issue examines the contracted research report on science and technology research in North Korea, led by Hyunkyoo Choi, principal researcher at KISTI and chairman of the Unification Science and Technology Research Counci...

Global NK Interview features diverse South Korean researchers who study North Korea and their work to exhibit progress made by scholars in their research on North Korea. We meet Dr. Kim Kwang-woon, a Visiting Research Professor Emeritus at Kyungnam University for this issue. He has directed the publication of The Annals of North Joseon, which has r...

Global NK explores a myriad of notable Korean research that explores diverse perspectives on North Korea. For this purpose, we introduce an analysis on the cultural heritage policy of North Korea by Dr. Young-Sun Jeon, who has conducted diverse studies with a focus on North Korea’s culture and art beyond conventional research topics on North Kore...