Evacuation warnings in Seoul, North Korean children’s books and more – Ep. 291

Seoul residents awoke to the sound of evacuation sirens and shrill emergency text alerts on Wednesday, after North Korea launched a military spy satellite that ultimately failed. The DPRK has expressed interest in sending its athletes to international competitions, but has been sending mixed signals about easing pandemic border controls.

Scholar Dafna Zur also joins the podcast to discuss her research into North Korean children’s literature and how the country’s translation of Anne Frank’s diary sought to make the author into a model of resilience against hardship, while stripping it of much of its content on Judaism.

Dafna Zur (@dafnazur) is an associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures at Stanford University. You can find her academic article on North Korea’s translation of Anne Frank’s diary here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/886562/pdf. The Dutch documentary on the translation discussed during the podcast is available to watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhyC-s-PyzI.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot (@JaccoZed) exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.