Ask me about North Korea

One often wonders whether people lead their daily lives in the same manner even in the most totalitarian regime on earth. This series of episodes will be dealing with various aspects of daily life in North Korea – ranging from individual interactions and work to education and cooking. Today’s episode looks into university education, daily life at work, and some North Korean spending habits. For the full transcript of the episode, references, and follow-up readings please visit the podcast’s website – www.askmeaboutdprk.wordpress.com

The North Korean government’s reputation has for a long time been marred by many illicit activities with drug trafficking being only one of those. The diplomats from Pyongyang were particularly notorious in the 1990s and early 2000s for misusing their diplomatic privileges to smuggle in drugs into other countries. But did you actually know that unrestricted drug consumption is a problem in North Korea itself even until this day? In fact, even though the DPRK is one of the most restrictive countries on Earth, it does not ban cannabis, while some of its citizens capitalize a lot on drug trade. In this episode, I am trying to shed more light on this paradoxic situation with drug production and consumption in the DPRK. For the full transcript of the episode, references, and follow-up readings please visit the podcast’s website – www.askmeaboutdprk.wordpress.com

As the European Union is trying to geopolitically establish itself in East Asia, which has become the heart of the world’s rapid economic development in recent years, it faces numerous issues in its attempts to assert its strategic sovereignty. There are many challenges in the region – ranging from Chinese foreign policy to local territorial disputes. Yet there is hardly any better example of the EU’s inability to establish itself as a geopolitical actor than its strategy – or, perhaps, the lack thereof – on the Korean Peninsula. So, what is wrong about the EU’s approach and what could be done better? For the full transcript of the episode, references, and follow-up readings please visit the podcast’s website – www.askmeaboutdprk.wordpress.com

The American diaspora is scattered all around the globe, but did you know that there are Americans, who also settled down in North Korea? The thought might seem ridiculous, considering how bad the hostilities between Washington and Pyongyang are. Yet there really are some Americans, who did end up there – either because they were forced to or on their own choice. In this episode I talk about some of their not-so-well-known stories. For the full transcript of the episode, references, and follow-up readings please visit the podcast’s website – www.askmeaboutdprk.wordpress.com

In blitz episodes, I combine different smaller questions that do not require as much elaboration as some broad topics that I normally discuss – like nuclear weapons or economic development. Today I will be talking about how Choco Pies became a black market currency in North Korea; about the situation with ice hockey; and Kim Jong-un-style haircuts. For the full transcript of the episode, references, and follow-up readings please visit the podcast’s website –

www.askmeaboutdprk.wordpress.com

North Koreans have pop-culture? You can’t be serious! Many Westerners see culture of the DPRK as a kitschy throwback to the Stalinist era and a mere tool of Pyongyang’s crazy propaganda. Is there more to North Korean culture than that? In today’s episode I will be talking about how culture and art are used in North Korea; what cultural developments has the country undergone in that last thirty years and what it looks like today. So if you are curious how Harry Potter and Mickey Mouse are spending their time in Pyongyang, tune in.

While internationally corruption is always seen as a major problem that most governments and societies are desperately trying to combat, in North Korea it has become somewhat of a blessing in disguise. Why is that so? How has it become the foundation of North Korean capitalism and state-society interactions? What will its consequences be for the country in the long run? If you are curious, tune in!

Korean reunification is officially proclaimed to be a major policy goal both in the North and the South. However, the country has remained divided for more than 70 years. Why? Do both parties really want to reunify? What do their neighbors think? In this episode I will be talking about Korean reunification and why it is going to be almost impossible to achieve.

Today we will be looking into a question that is not so often raised in discussions about North Korea – but it is, nonetheless, extremely important and interesting. What is it like – being gay in North Korea? While there is not much that we hear about the LGBTQ community in the DPRK, it does not mean that these people do not exist. In fact, their life can be very-very miserable, which is why discussing this question in the public field is so important. In this episode, I will briefly explain why being queer in North Korea is very hard (you can probably imagine why) and outline the key characteristics of systemic queerphobia in the DPRK. After that, I will provide you with some excerpts from the interviews with the only openly gay defector as well as a brief analysis of the DPRK’s statements about LGBTQ.

In this episode Prof. Dmitry Ivanovich Pobedash and I are talking about how the U.S. domestic politics can have a broader impact on not only all things North Korean, but the international security system and broad issues of denuclearization around the world. Prof. Dmitry Pobedash is an Associate Professor at the Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where he teaches English and History of Russian-American Relations. Prof. Pobedash authored over 50 articles and monograph chapters on international relations that were published in Russian, English, and Ukrainian. He taught at universities in Serbia, Thailand, the Czech Republic, and in the USA.