North Korea News Podcast by NK News

The U.S. and South Korea wrapped up large-scale springtime military drills last week, but not without a response from the DPRK. NK News Managing Editor Bryan Betts (@BryanBetts21) sits down to discuss North Korea’s recent rocket salvo, as well as why state propaganda is keen to show leader Kim Jong Un is not just focused on the military.

Then, scholar Sheena Chestnut Greitens joins the podcast to talk about the politics of the North Korean diaspora and defectors’ outsized influence on international policy toward the DPRK.

Chestnut Greitens discusses her research on North Korean communities in not only South Korea but also countries like the U.S. and the U.K., and how defectors who grew up in one of the world’s most repressive authoritarian dictatorships navigate the rights of citizenship in democratic states.

She also explores how the North Korean state attempts to control the diaspora by preventing people from leaving and dissuading those who have from engaging in political activities.

Sheena Chestnut Greitens (@SheenaGreitens) is director of the Asia Policy Program at the University of Texas-Austin, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment and a visiting professor at the U.S. Army War College. Her latest book is “Politics of the North Korean Diaspora.”

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.

The U.S. and South Korea launched large-scale springtime military exercises to practice “neutralizing” North Korean nuclear threats this month. Pyongyang has called the Freedom Shield exercises between the allies “frantic war drills,” warning that Washington and Seoul will pay a “dear price.” 

The NK News team sits down in the studio to discuss the annual exercises and Pyongyang's response, as well as the status of North Korea’s social media accounts after it overhauled its inter-Korean policy and Seoul’s decision to dissolve a division responsible for negotiating peace and denuclearization with the DPRK.

This week’s episode features the following members of the NK News team:

NK News Founder Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl)

Lead Correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim)

Seoul Correspondent Shreyas Reddy (@shreyas_k_reddy) 

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.

North Korea marked the fifth anniversary of leader Kim Jong Un’s trip to Vietnam by highlighting relations between Pyongyang and Hanoi, while making no mention of Kim’s failed summit with former U.S. President Donald Trump during the same visit.

NK News news trainee Joe Smith (@nkjoesmith) discusses the snub, the DPRK’s failure to pay its contribution to the U.N. budget and more. 

Then, Frode Mauring (@Frode_Mauring), the former U.N. resident coordinator to the DPRK, joins the podcast to discuss his brief time in North Korea before the country shuttered its borders in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. 

He describes how his role took on a new form as he worked from Bangkok, engaging North Korean diplomats stationed in Thailand and Pyongyang’s prioritization of certain goods after imposing border controls. Mauring also talks about his newly appointed successor and what challenges he may face going forward. 

Frode Mauring is a Norwegian national who has worked with the U.N. since 2002. He previously served as the U.N. resident coordinator to the Russian Federation, North Macedonia, Kosovo and the United Arab Emirates. Before joining the U.N., he worked for almost 20 years in the private sector in banking and consulting.

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.

A German delegation traveled to North Korea this week to inspect the condition of the country’s embassy in Pyongyang, in what appears to be the first visit by European staff in some four years. 

NK News Seoul Correspondent Ifang Bremer (@IfangBremer) discusses what this could mean for a broader DPRK border reopening and the return of international aid agencies, as well as the five-year anniversary of the failed Hanoi Summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Then, Professor Ruediger Frank joins the podcast to talk about how the DPRK has reassessed risk amid the emergence of a “new Cold War” and how this has driven its recent closure of embassies in several countries. He also discusses Pyongyang’s relationship with Beijing and Moscow and why he believes Kim Jong Un has not actually given up on reunification despite the DPRK’s recent revision of its inter-Korean policy.

Dr. Ruediger Frank (@Ruediger Frank) is a professor of East Asian economy and society at the University of Vienna, where he heads the Department of East Asian Studies. He spent one semester as a language student at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang in 1991/1992. He holds a master’s degree in Korean studies and international relations and a Ph.D. in economics.

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.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korea’s leader, raised the possibility of engagement between Pyongyang and Tokyo last week but caveated that this is her “personal” view.

NK News Lead Correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim) dissects Kim Yo Jong’s statement, as well as a proposal from South Korea’s unification ministry to take DNA samples from suspected North Koreans who wash up dead on ROK shores to identify them in the future.

Then, researcher and NK Pro contributor Martin Weiser sits down in the studio to discuss North Korea’s new line on reunification, election reform in the DPRK and what state media’s portrayal of Kim Jong Un’s daughter could mean for her future.

He also talks about the difficult process of tracking the North Korean leadership and how changes in officials’ ranks can provide clues about how the regime works.

Martin Weiser (@NKResearcher) received his master's degree from Korea University in 2014 with a thesis on North Korea’s changing human rights policy. He has since continued researching DPRK political history, and his writing has appeared in SinoNK, the European Journal of Korean Studies and NK Pro.

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.

The first group of tourists to visit North Korea since before the COVID-19 pandemic returned home to Russia this week after a 4-day trip to Pyongyang and the Masikryong Ski Resort.

NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin discusses plans for more groups of Russian nationals to visit the DPRK next month, the experiences of one man who spent time at a North Korean summer camp on two separate occasions, as well as a state media report stating Pyongyang tested a new “controlled rocket artillery shell and ballistic control system” last week.

Then, Senior Fellow for Korean Studies and Chief Executive Office at the Korea Economic Institute of America Scott Snyder joins the podcast to discuss his role writing about North and South Korea’s foreign policies to provide context for media and analyze and assess current issues.

He also talks about his latest book, “The United States–South Korea Alliance: Why It May Fail and Why It Must Not,” and areas where Washington and Seoul can work together outside defense, such as technology development, global public health, and space cooperation. 

Scott Snyder (@snydersas) is set to become the new president and chief executive officer of the Korea Economic Institute of America next month. He has served as the Senior Fellow for Korea Studies at the Korea Economic Institute of America for over a decade and was previously a senior associate in the international relations program of the Asia Foundation.

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.

South Korea and Russia have gone back and forth in recent days after Moscow took issue with President Yoon Suk-yeol’s description of North Korea at a defense meeting. The NK News team discusses the war of words between the two sides, along with a planned trip by Russian nationals set for this week, in what could be the return of tourists to the DPRK. 

The team also talks about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s secret visit to a recently-opened luxury department store in Pyongyang as well as an NK Pro analysis, which revealed that the DPRK has significantly expanded fencing and security infrastructure along both of its coastlines since the start of the pandemic, in a likely attempt to make it harder for residents to escape by sea.

This week’s episode features the following members of the NK News team.

Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko  (@ColinZwirko)

Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin 

Seoul Correspondent Ifang Bremer (@IfangBremer)

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.

Some three weeks ago, longtime North Korea watchers Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker set off alarm bells from Washington to Seoul when they asserted that “like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war.” Their warnings in an article for the website 38 North have received widespread coverage in both ROK and U.S. media, and prompted even South Koreans accustomed to ignoring the DPRK to consider whether a repeat of the Korean War is on the horizon.

But not everyone is convinced. Thomas Schäfer, the former German ambassador to the DPRK, argued against their thesis in a rebuttal, and the U.S. government has assessed that there are currently no signs of preparations for an imminent attack.

This week, Carlin and Hecker join the NK News podcast to explain exactly why they see Pyongyang’s recent war rhetoric as more than just empty bluster. They discuss why the DPRK has shifted away from seeking to normalize ties with the U.S., their views on what exactly Kim Jong Un is planning and how they’ve handled the overwhelming response to their article.

Then, NK News CEO Chad O’Carroll shares his thoughts on Carlin and Hecker’s argument and how North Korea could test the credibility of U.S. deterrence.

Robert Carlin is a nonresident fellow at the Stimson Center and a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. From both in and out of government, he has been following North Korea since 1974 and has made over 30 trips there.

Siegfried Hecker is a distinguished professor of practice at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is director emeritus of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he served as director from 1986 to 1997 and as senior fellow until July 2005.

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.

North Korea appears to have demolished a large monument in Pyongyang symbolizing hope for reunification with South Korea, following orders from Kim Jong Un to “erase” symbols that celebrate inter-Korean reconciliation and the goal of reunification.

NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko discusses some of the fallout from Kim’s instructions, as well as North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui’s trip to Moscow last week to meet her Russian counterpart and Vladimir Putin. 

Then, award-winning journalist Chun Sujin joins the podcast to discuss what inspired her to cover North Korea and her predictions for Pyongyang’s diplomatic direction in the years to come. 

She also talks about her book, “North Korean Women in Power: Daughters of the Sun,” which is centered around the elite circle of women who surround DPRK leader Kim Jong Un. Chun also offers her assessment of the likelihood of Kim’s daughter succeeding him. 

Chun Sujin is a staff writer who covers North Korea, writing in Korean for the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper and English for the JoongAng Daily newspaper. She has previously worked as a correspondent for government agencies such as the ROK presidential office and the foreign ministry. 

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.

North Korean propaganda websites targeting South Korea suddenly started to disappear from the internet last week, after leader Kim Jong Un declared in late December that Korean unification is now “impossible.” Some radio broadcasts into the ROK have also stopped, while the DPRK announced on Tuesday that it is shutting down several organizations dealing with inter-Korean matters.

NK News Correspondent Shreyas Reddy (@shreyas_k_reddy) sits down in the studio to discuss what outlets have disappeared, North Korea’s social media strategy and how this apparent blackout could evolve.

Then, James Heenan, the head of the U.N. Human Rights office in Seoul (@UNrightsSeoul), talks about his role in monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in North Korea, as well as his office’s role in collecting evidence that could one day be used for prosecutions of crimes against humanity in the DPRK.

He also reviews a U.N. report published last year titled “These Wounds Do Not Heal,” which details enforced disappearance and abductions by the DPRK. He discusses enforced disappearances of both North Koreans and of foreigners, as well as the history behind the DPRK’s abductions of Japanese nationals. 

James Heenan previously served as the head of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Palestine from 2015. He has also worked in academia on labor rights issues and as a practicing lawyer in the U.K. and Australia. 

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.