Seunghee Ha, a research professor at Dongguk University, asserts that despite North Korea's efforts to develop AI to a level that could replace human intelligence, its human-centered ideology prevents it from being utilized beyond an auxiliary tool. While pointing out that South Korea is currently the only country in the international community blo...

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...

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...

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...

The rapid influx of North Korean defectors since the mid-1990s has called for an urgent need to develop policies from the perspective of social integration. In this commentary, Sung Jae Park, Head of Financial Project Assessment Team at the Center for Employment Impact Assessment, Korea Labor Institute, raises the importance of the development of p...

Street snaps of the streets of Seoul and Pyongyang show that clothing styles among South Koreans and North Koreans are drastically different. In this Research Review, Hyun-Sook Choy, Honorary Professor and Former Dean of the Graduate School of Fashion at Dongduk Women’s University explains the trajectory in which fashion in North Korea has change...

The emergence of South Korean pop culture such as the eminence of BTS and Netflix series “Squid Game” has become a global phenomenon. In contrast, little is known about the form and contents of North Korean contemporary culture both to the world and the South Korean audience. In this commentary, Hong Jae-bum, Professor in the Department of Kore...

Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, an extensive number of cultural exchange visits were made between the Soviet Union and North Korea in various fields including the arts. Mutual visits paid by delegates of the respective countries served as an opportunity to introduce cultural techniques and receive training by experts of the other country...

North and South Korea had the same traditional culture before they were separated. After their division, each had developed its own culture stemming from the shared tradition. One example of divided cultural elements is “mass games” or “mass gymnastics”, which have similar characteristics but different meanings. In South Korea, mass games h...

Western-style circus performances were first introduced to Korea by Japan. The circus enjoyed its popularity in South Korea until the proliferation of mass media. The short history of circus in South Korea has been buried in oblivion, as it was not included as part of the governmental effort to preserve traditional culture during 1980s. In this spe...