North Korea News Podcast by NK News

Growing up in an elite DPRK family, Seohyun Lee enjoyed privileges available to few other North Koreans. But that all changed during a study abroad trip to China, when she says a seemingly innocuous question from a taxi driver led to her “waking up from the matrix.” Then when a close friend of hers disappeared, she and her family were forced to escape the country for good.

This week, Lee joins the NK News podcast to discuss her life in the DPRK and the many ways in which it has changed since her defection. She talks about her family’s connections to China-DPRK trade, the rigid school system, her work as a human rights activist, what she plans to study as the recipient of an academic scholarship from the Otto Warmbier family, and more.

Seohyun Lee (@Pyonghattan) is a North Korean defector and human rights advocate who runs the Pyonghattan YouTube channel with her brother Hyun-seung Lee.

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 is a small country, with a tiny economy and rigid political system, squeezed between much larger, richer nations. And yet its nuclear weapons allow it to dominate discourse about the region, give it a seat at the table with the U.S. and propel leader Kim Jong Un to front-page headlines. 

To Dr. Sung-Yoon Lee, assistant professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, this is particularly chilling because North Korea has used this influence to sponsor terrorism, proliferate weapons and launder money, all while oppressing its own people and depriving them of aid and support from the international community.

On this episode of the NK News Podcast, Lee (@sungyoonlee1) discusses why he opposed summits with Kim Jong Un, the struggle for Korean legitimacy between North and South, why the phrase “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” is fundamentally flawed, how North Korea seeks to change the status quo and his forthcoming book “The Sister,” about Kim Yo Jong.

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.

In August, the U.S. and South Korea carried out large-scale field training exercises for the first time since 2018, while North Korea conducted a missile test for the first time in months. The DPRK declared “victory” over COVID-19 less than three months after reporting its first outbreak. And a South Korean man attacked the high-profile activist and defector Park Sang-hak with a metal pipe at a public event, in what Park claimed was an assault orchestrated by Pyongyang. 

This week, the NK News team breaks down these and other significant events from throughout the month. They discuss Pyongyang’s response to the joint U.S.-ROK exercises, Yoon Suk-yeol’s “audacious” plan to denuclearize North Korea, how China’s upcoming party congress could influence the timing of a DPRK nuclear test and more.

This week’s episode features Lead Correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim), Analyst James Fretwell (@JamesFretwe11) and 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.

How far should the U.S. go to protect its allies, and can South Korea do more to protect itself without outside help?

Doug Bandow (@Doug_Bandow), a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, has spent decades considering this equation and has come to believe the U.S.-ROK alliance needs serious reimagination, starting with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula.

Bandow says South Korea is rich and powerful enough to carry its own water, and that the U.S. can have a more effective foreign policy — in Asia and elsewhere — by understanding when and where to use force, and where to retrench itself.

On this episode of the NK News Podcast, Bandow and host Jacco Zwetsloot also discuss the China-Taiwan issue, whether Beijing would really intervene in case of a second Korean War, the upshot of multipolarity, the limits of extended deterrence against North Korea and the merits of a South Korean nuclear program.

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.

Over the last four years, Jacco Zwetsloot has hosted 249 episodes of the NK News podcast, interviewing everyone from longtime Korea watchers and prominent defectors to Donald Trump’s point man for negotiations with Pyongyang. But the podcast’s 250th episode features a particularly special guest — the host himself.

This week, Zwetsloot talks with NK News Deputy Editor Arius Derr (@AriusDerr) about the first-ever North Korean to stand before a U.S. court and his research on DPRK comic books. They discuss why North Korean comics don’t depict Kim family leaders, the challenges of navigating South Korean restrictions on DPRK materials, what he has learned from hosting the podcast and more.

Zwetsloot’s article for NK News on the criminal case of DPRK diplomat O Nam Chol is available to read here, and his master’s thesis on North Korean comic novels is available 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.

Before the mid-1980s, North Korea and East Germany did not have the most robust relationship despite both being allies of the Soviet Union and their similar situations as the communist half of a divided country. That all changed when founding leader Kim Il Sung decided to host one of the largest events in North Korean history.

In this episode of the NK News Podcast, Bernd Schaefer talks about how East Germany’s secret police helped facilitate the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang, similarities between East Germany and North Korea and the lessons of a divided Germany for the two Koreas today.

Bernd Schaefer is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center’s Cold War International History Project and a professor at George Washington University. In the past he was a visiting scholar at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul and has held various other appointments across Asia and Europe. 

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.

July was a busy month on the Korean Peninsula. The South Korean government launched an investigation into the 2019 forced repatriation of two North Koreans. DPRK leader Kim Jong Un slammed ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol as a “military gangster.” And Pyongyang expressed willingness to send laborers to breakaway Ukrainian regions.

This week, the NK News team breaks down all the major events. They discuss a new decree posted in Pyongyang warning of the death penalty for anyone who re-sells drugs during the COVID-19 outbreak, ventilators and other trade shipments from China, ship activity near Nampho, apparently warm ties between the Donbas breakaway republics and North Korea, the latest cyberattacks and more.

This week’s episode features the following members of the NK News team: Lead Correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim), Analyst James Fretwell (@JamesFretwe11) and Data Correspondent Ethan Jewell (@EthanJewell).

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.

This week, NK News podcast host Jacco Zwetsloot returns to what some call “freedom’s frontier,” better known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, for a special travelogue episode.

Ret. U.S. Lt. Col. Steve Tharp. Ret. ROK Col. Jee Hong-ki, NK News founder and CEO Chad O’Carroll join the tour of the less-visited central border region of Cheorwon, peering into North Korea and learning about the battles fought in the area during the Korean War, rogue mines, defections across the inter-Korean border, tourism at the DMZ, sabertooth tigers 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.

Threat dynamics on the Korean Peninsula are rapidly evolving. North Korea has proven extremely capable in cyberspace, compromising sensitive systems around the world and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. The DPRK’s armed forces are also adopting unmanned aerial vehicles and developing hypersonic missiles that present new challenges to South Korean and U.S. defenses in the region.

Cho Dongyoun of Seokyeong University has spent decades on the frontline of these new and emerging threats. As a major in the ROK army, Cho helped interpret and expand intelligence capabilities and understand North Korean tactics on the battlefield, online and in space.

She joins the NK News Podcast to talk about these new emerging threats from North Korea and how South Korea is rethinking defense in the 21st century. 

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 Sweden’s ambassador to South Korea from 2018 to 2021, Jakob Hallgren saw firsthand as the pendulum shifted from hope and optimism about the future of inter-Korean relations to pessimism and doubt about whether Seoul and Pyongyang could ever reconcile.

This week, Hallgren joins the NK News podcast to discuss his country’s role in diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula, Sweden's history in facilitating track 1.5 and 2.0 talks, the Ukraine war and what North Korea stands to gain, and why the dream of Korean unification will go unrealized.

Jakob Hallgren (@HallgrenJakob) is the director of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Prior to that, he was Sweden’s ambassador for disarmament and non-Proliferation, as well as ambassador to the Republic of Korea. 

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.