North Korea News Podcast by NK News

North Korea dramatically destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office near the border in anger over ROK activists’ leafleting in 2020, and now three years later, Seoul wants Pyongyang to pay, suing the North in an effort to recoup construction costs for the building. 

Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim), lead correspondent at NK News and editorial director at Korea Pro, discusses the Yoon administration’s novel legal strategy and how the move fits into a broader rightward shift in its inter-Korean and foreign policy.

Then, Christopher Green of International Crisis Group joins the NK News podcast to discuss the likelihood of an inter-Korean naval clash, the value of North Korea’s satellite launches for regime security and what the end of the Sunshine Era can teach us about the current political moment.

Christopher Green (@Dest_Pyongyang) is an analyst at the International Crisis Group and an assistant professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

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’s borders have been closed for more than three years, but that likely hasn’t stopped China from rounding up defectors and detaining them for eventual repatriation back to the DPRK.

New NK Pro analysis reveals that China has expanded prisons known to house defectors right near the border. Ifang Bremer (@IfangBremer) shares his investigation into these prisons, the rigorous interrogations carried out there and why defectors face even bleaker outcomes if sent back across the border.

Then, Karl Friedhoff of the Chicago Council joins the show to dissect public polling data and help us better understand how South Koreans really feel about nuclear weapons, why North Korea barely registers for younger voters, whether President Yoon Suk-yeol’s approval ratings will continue to inch up after a “train wreck” of a first year and more.

Karl Friedhoff (@KarlFriedhoff) is the Marshall M. Bouton Fellow for Asia Studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where he researches U.S. foreign policy in Asia, South Korean politics and international relations.

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 last several weeks have seen major developments on the Korean Peninsula, most notably North Korea’s botched satellite launch that triggered “wartime alert” warnings in South Korea. A historic series of meetings between ROK and Japanese leaders pushed forward efforts to repair ties. And the U.S. and ROK conducted their “largest-ever” live-fire drills.

NK News lead correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim), analyst James Fretwell (@JamesFretwe11) and correspondent Shreyas Reddy (@shreyas_k_reddy) break it all down in a monthly roundtable discussion on the biggest events from May.

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.

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.

The late 2000s and early 2010s saw a rapid deterioration in inter-Korean ties. The six-party talks broke down, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test and dozens of sailors and South Korean civilians died in two separate DPRK attacks in 2010. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens led the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2008 to 2011 and played a leading role in navigating the U.S.-ROK alliance through this tumultuous period. 

This week, she joins the NK News podcast to discuss the unique challenges and scrutiny a U.S. ambassador faces in Seoul, the allied responses to the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island attacks and the six-party denuclearization talks. Ambassador Stephens also weighs in on watching South Korea’s rapid industrialization and democratization, inter-Korean cooperation projects, what the Good Friday Agreement can teach about inter-Korean reconciliation and more.

Kathleen Stephens (@AmbStephens) first lived in South Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1975 to 1977. She went on to serve as an internal political unit chief at the embassy in Seoul from 1983 to 1987 and an officer at the U.S. consulate in Busan from 1987 to 1989. She became the first female U.S. ambassador to South Korea in 2008. Ambassador Stephens now serves as chair of the board at the Korea Society in New York and president and CEO at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington.

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 Koreans are subjected to some of the worst human rights abuses on Earth, living under a state that refuses to cooperate with the U.N. and other watchdogs and does whatever it takes to keep the Kim dynasty in power.

But Joanna Hosaniak of the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights says that regime change is not necessarily the answer. Instead, she argues that the international community must learn to work within the confines of the North Korean state to realize change from within.

This week, Hosaniak joins the NK News podcast to discuss the history of the North Korean human rights movement and how her group leverages its nongovernmental status to push for improvements. She also talks about how DPRK human rights has become politicized in South Korea, the impacts of COVID lockdowns on defectors and whether it’s time for a new U.N. Commission of Inquiry investigation into human rights abuses in the country.

Joanna Hosaniak is the deputy director general of the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (@NKHumanRights), the world’s oldest nongovernmental organization devoted exclusively to North Korean human rights. She has also worked at the South Korean Embassy in Poland and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

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.

Pyongyang failed to achieve its dream of unifying the Korean Peninsula under the banner of the Kim regime during the Korean War, but that may not mean it has abandoned the goal.

Andrei Lankov, a professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University, argues that Pyongyang made unification a long-term goal to orient national ideology and justify military spending. And this week, he joins the podcast to discuss why he believes the DPRK’s rapid development of long-range and tactical nuclear weapons now compressed the timeline under which it could realistically achieve this goal through nuclear blackmail.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Lankov talks about why a low-level military clash between the Koreas is increasingly likely in the near future, whether the geopolitical conditions will ever materialize for North Korea to truly attempt to conquer the South, how Donald Trump’s alliance skepticism energized the South Korean nuclear debate and more.

Andrei Lankov is a director at NK News and professor at Kookmin University and writes exclusively 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 to 1985 and has authored several books on the DPRK.

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.

From the outside, it appears the Kim Jong Un regime is no closer to giving up its nuclear weapons than it was a decade ago. State media frequently trumpets the newest nuclear strategy or delivery vehicle, and the leader himself said he will never again entertain denuclearization talks.

But Taeho Uhm, a director at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sees a country struggling with its choices as it copes with its self-imposed pariah status.

Uhm joins the NK News podcast to discuss Pyongyang’s strategy for muddling through, the South Korean government’s “audacious initiative” and how Yoon Suk-yeol is working to deter, dissuade and enter into dialogue with Kim Jong Un.

He also talks about the South Korean nuclear debate, working on inter-Korean relations across multiple administrations and makes the case that the denuclearization of North Korea is a global issue — not just a Korean one.

Taeho Uhm is the director for North Korean nuclear affairs negotiations in the Office of the Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs at the South Korean foreign ministry (@MOFAkr_eng).

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.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol reached a series of agreements during their summit on Wednesday, creating a new nuclear consultation group to “manage” North Korean threats and pledging to “further enhance the visibility” of U.S. strategic assets on the peninsula.

But reading between the lines of the summit result — which included a joint declaration, fact sheet and press conference — reveals that Washington was likely as focused on deterring South Korea from going nuclear as it was on preventing the DPRK from using its nuclear weapons.

NK News CEO Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl), lead correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim) and Korea Pro editor John Lee (@koreanforeigner) discuss the top-line takeaways from summit, including:

How the new U.S.-ROK nuclear sharing differs from NATO nuclear sharing deal

The value of a state visit over just a summit 

How recent developments affect public support for ROK nuclear weapons program 

The economic security dimensions of the meeting

What new South Korean investments in missile defense mean for North Korean threats 

New freedom of information developments and implications for North Korean censorship 

And more

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.

As a three-star Air Force general, Dan Leaf trained to carry out nuclear strikes and vaporize targets without hesitation. But after a more than 30-year career, including tours on the Korean Peninsula, the self-described “nuclear warrior” came to believe that what the U.S. was doing wasn’t working to reduce tensions with the DPRK.

The retired general now believes that a permanent peace treaty with the Kim regime is the best chance to break the status quo and, most importantly, reduce the chance of nuclear conflict. And he argues that this could also undermine a raison d’etre of a regime that has made war with the U.S. a core part of its identity.

Leaf joins the NK News podcast to discuss his time in high-level positions in Korea, what reconciliation with Vietnam can teach us about Korea, why the U.S. consider sending food aid into North Korea regardless of whether the country agrees to accept it and more.

Lt. Gen. Dan Leaf (@figleaf31) is a retired U.S. three-star general and Air Force fighter pilot and former deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Command. You can read his New York Times op-ed making the case for a peace treaty with North Korea here.

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.