North Korea News Podcast by NK News

Researcher Kap Seol, a frequent contributor to the leftist magazine Jacobin, joins the podcast to discuss his recent article about how the deployment of DPRK troops to fight in Ukraine could lead South Korea to respond by escalating its own involvement. 

The self-described former socialist also talks about the similarities between Kim Il Sung and Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu, while touching on historical topics like the life of a revolutionary Korean in 1930s China and the persistent allegations of North Korean involvement in the 1980 Gwangju Uprising

Kap Seol is a Korean writer and researcher based in New York. His writings have appeared in Jacobin, Labor Notes, In These Times, Business Insider and other publications. 

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

North Korea launched multiple sea-to-surface strategic cruise missiles on Saturday, with leader Kim Jong Un overseeing the first weapons test since Donald Trump assumed the U.S. presidency.

NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to discuss the launch, as well as a former ROK spy likening President Yoon Suk-yeol’s alleged order to arrest lawmakers to the tactics of North Korean secret police. He also discusses new revelations about the fate of the DPRK’s United Front Department.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

North Korea-Russia ties have grown by leaps and bounds since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, while its relationship with China appears to have suffered as a result.

This week, expert Lyle Goldstein joins the podcast to share insights into Pyongyang’s strategic partnerships with its neighbors and the complex dynamics that shape its nuclear ambitions. He also discusses what could come now that Donald Trump has been inaugurated and why he believes that Trump-Kim engagement 2.0 could help deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. 

Lyle J. Goldstein is the director of the Asia Program at Defense Priorities, a nonprofit think tank. He is also director of the China Initiative and senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. He is wrapping up a book length project that examines China-Russia relations in the 21st century.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

In this episode, NK News Deputy Managing Editor Alannah Hill dives into the latest evidence of North Korea’s military involvement in the war in Ukraine, focusing on recently recovered handwritten notes detailing Kim Jong Un’s message to North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces. She also talks about how Kyiv’s decision to reveal the identities of captured DPRK soldiers has raised ethnical concerns.

Then, she discusses North Korean state media’s coverage of impeached ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol’s arrest last week and the first statement by the leader’s sister Kim Yo Jong in some two months, rejecting the Belarusian leader’s assertion that Pyongyang reached out to request a top-level summit. 

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

In this special roundtable episode, NK News journalists evaluate the accuracy of their predictions for 2024 and share what they expect from North Korea in the year to come.

The team discusses how the DPRK’s relations with South Korea, China and Russia have evolved and allegations that Seoul sought to provoke Pyongyang last year. They also anticipate what Donald Trump and Lee Jae-myung will do after taking power, as well as the possibility that North Korea will meddle in the upcoming ROK election and create its own internet with social media services.

This episode features the following members of the NK News team:

Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy

Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin 

Correspondent Jeongmin Kim

The full NK Pro series laying out predictions for the year can be read here: Part 1 and Part 2.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

Ukraine released the first testimony from North Korean soldiers captured fighting for Russia in the Kursk region on Saturday, providing the latest evidence of the DPRK’s involvement in the war.

NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko joins the podcast to discuss the footage and photos of the two soldiers released by the Ukrainian government and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s offer to “hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers” in return for Ukrainian prisoners of war captured by Russia. 

He also talks about what the DPRK might be telling the families of dead soldiers, as well as the latest on Kim Jong Un’s Regional Development 20×10 Policy.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

In this episode, Andrei Lankov returns to the podcast to discuss key developments in and around North Korea over the last year, including the deployment of DPRK weapons and soldiers to aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He also discusses the impact of Pyongyang's increasing alignment with Moscow, the current state of China-DPRK ties and why North Korea is in no hurry to allow Western visitors to return. 

Andrei Lankov is a director at Korea Risk Group and writes for the site as one of the world's leading authorities on North Korea. A graduate of Leningrad State University, he attended Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University from 1984-5. In addition to his writing, he is also a professor at Kookmin University.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

North Korea launched into the new year with its first test of a ballistic missile in months, firing an upgraded version of its solid-fuel hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile on Monday. 

NK News Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy joins the podcast to discuss what new about the missile and the timing of the launch. He also reviews the DPRK’s year-end party plenum and leader Kim Jong Un’s appearance at a New Year’s concert. 

Finally, he talks about accusations by South Korea’s opposition party that the Yoon administration engaged in psychological warfare operations to induce a conflict with North Korea.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is located in northeast China, just across the border from North Korea, and while few outsiders may know about it, the region is home to a sizable population of ethnic Koreans whose story is wrapped up with the decades-long division of the peninsula.

In this episode, Chinese YouTuber Jingwu Fang joins the podcast to discuss what he learned during multiple trips to the area sometimes dubbed the “Third Korea,” which he documented in a pair of widely viewed videos on his channel. He explores how many Koreans fled to Manchuria during the Korean War and stayed there after the conflict ended, as well as similarities to ethnic Korean populations in Japan and the former Soviet Union.

Fang also talks about the different attitudes of older and younger generations toward the DPRK and why he thinks many Yangbian residents now harbor negative opinions about North Korean defectors.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

The world has long since moved on from the closures and restrictions of the pandemic, but five years since the first COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the patchy return of diplomatic missions and foreign aid organizations to Pyongyang shows that North Korea is still far from restoring the pre-2020 status quo.

This week, NK News founder Chad O’Carroll joins the podcast to discuss his investigation into the status of all the countries and organizations that once had an on-the-ground presence in the DPRK, from embassies and cooperation offices to NGOs, businesses and schools.

He also explores why North Korea has opened its doors to friendly countries like Brazil, India and Nicaragua and even NATO members Sweden and Poland, while seemingly giving the cold shoulder to the rest of Europe.

This episode features discussion of the following NK Pro stories:

Where things stand with the diplomatic community in North Korea

From aid to academia: The status of foreign organizations in North Korea

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.