North Korea News Podcast by NK News

June was a busy month on the Korean Peninsula. The leaders of the U.S., Japan and South Korea met for the first time in nearly five years as Tokyo and Seoul began to repair ties. North Korea blamed ‘alien things’ like anti-regime balloons for spreading COVID-19 into the country. And top DPRK military officials adopted a major military action plan that some experts said may entail the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to near the inter-Korean border.

This week, three members of the NK News team join the podcast to discuss all these developments and more, breaking down what happened, what it means and what they’re monitoring for the weeks ahead.

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

Growing up in Kobe, Park Hyangsu lived in a world apart from most of the Japanese people around her. At school, her teachers spoke Korean. In the classroom, portraits of North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il hung on the walls. For educational field trips, students traveled to the DPRK.

This week, Park joins the NK News podcast to discuss her family’s life inside Chongryon, the pro-DPRK organization of ethnic Koreans in Japan that acts as Pyongyang’s de facto embassy to Tokyo. She shares about her experience receiving Juche ideological education in school, the tragic story of her uncle who moved to the DPRK, how her family distanced itself from the organization and how she now speaks up for people like her family members who have been imprisoned and tortured in North Korea.

Park Hyangsu (@HyangsuPark and @baglekang) is a North Korea human rights activist and a Zainichi Korean now living in South Korea. Her story is featured in the NK News article “Activists fear North Korean human rights issues increasingly met with a shrug.”

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.

When the war in Ukraine broke out earlier this year, Russian leader Vladimir Putin justified his country’s invasion as an effort to “denazify” its smaller neighbor, a striking claim given that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish. Moscow has also compared its “special military operation” to the fight against Nazi Germany in World War II, an especially proud moment in the country’s history.

This week, author and journalist Katie Stallard joins the NK News podcast to explore parallels between Russia’s invocation of history and North Korea’s own use of historical narratives to prop up the Kim family regime. She discusses Pyongyang’s dubious official accounts of founding leader Kim Il Sung’s exploits, how the country falsely frames the Korean War as a U.S. invasion and other examples of why the past is never dead in the DPRK.

Stallard (@katiestallard) is a senior editor at the New Statesman magazine and the author of “Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia, and North Korea,” published by Oxford University Press in May 2022.

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 assassination of Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un’s older half-brother who was at one time believed to be in line to succeed their father, stands among the most shocking episodes of the current leader’s decade in power — all the more so for the manner in which it was done. According to reports, DPRK agents tricked two women into smearing VX nerve agent onto their target in broad daylight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, believing it was for a prank show. The brazen killing marked a rare moment when Kim family intrigue spilled out into the open and presented a captivating true crime story.

This week, Emilia Brock and Lucas Reilly join the NK News podcast to describe how they came to create an audio series not so much about the murder and its messy aftermath, but about everything that led up to it. The journalists and producers discuss Kim Jong Nam’s arguably ill-deserved reputation as a playboy and high roller, the whereabouts of his son, what he did to earn the ire of his half-brother and more.

Emilia Brock (@emiliabrock) and Lucas Reilly (@LucasReilly1) are the producers, writers and editors behind the eight-part podcast series “Big Brother: North Korea’s Forgotten Prince.”

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 1959 to 1984, some 93,000 ethnic Koreans voluntarily left Japan to go live in the DPRK. Driven away by discrimination in Japan, and lured by promises of free housing and health care in socialist North Korea, these migrants would arrive in a country far different from the “Workers’ Paradise” that they had been promised. And once there, it wasn’t nearly so easy to leave.

This week, Markus Bell joins the NK News podcast to discuss his research into the stories of the many Zainichi Koreans who fled Japan for North Korea — and in some cases fled North Korea to return to Japan. He explains the various push and pull factors that drove ethnic Koreans to the DPRK, the prejudice that they experienced once there and how those who have escaped have struggled to find a country they can call home.

Dr. Markus Bell (@mpsbell) is a research fellow at La Trobe University and an adviser to the U.N.'s International Office for Migration. His new book “Outsiders: Memories of Migration to and from North Korea” is available from Berghahn Books.

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 late May, Korea Risk Group hosted a special three-day conference on South Korea’s east coast for NK Pro subscribers and other North Korea watchers. Called the East Coast Exchange, the event featured expert presentations, vibrant discussions and ample time for networking, as well as a unique opportunity to view the DPRK’s Mount Kumgang from South Korea’s northernmost guard post on the DMZ.

This week, NK News podcast host Jacco Zwetsloot provides an inside account of the special event for listeners who couldn’t attend, interviewing participants ranging from Israeli Ambassador Akiva Tor and Yonsei University professor John Delury to familiar members of the NK News team. They discuss not only the conference but the possibility of a North Korean nuclear test, the country’s ongoing COVID-19 outbreak 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.

North Korea has rapidly expanded its cyber capabilities over the last decade, from marginal operations focused on distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to large-scale cyberwarfare capable of compromising hardened networks and stealing hundreds of millions in cash and cryptocurrency. Perhaps the most widely known of the DPRK’s cybercrime organizations is the so-called Lazarus Group, which has become all the more infamous through the success of the BBC’s hit podcast “The Lazarus Heist.”

This week, “The Lazarus Heist” co-creator and presenter Geoff White joins the NK News podcast to discuss this enigmatic group of hackers and the increasing sophistication of Pyongyang’s cyber efforts. He talks about DPRK attacks ranging from the 2016 Bangladesh Bank heist to a recent theft from a crypto-based video game, how North Korean hackers are increasingly utilizing the dark web and more.

Geoff White (@geoffwhite247) is an investigative journalist and technology specialist who has worked for the BBC, Channel 4 News, The Sunday Times and other outlets. His new book, “The Lazarus Heist – From Hollywood to High Finance: Inside North Korea’s Global Cyber War,” digs deeper into the workings of the DPRK’s “shadowy cabal of hackers” and will be published on June 9, 2022.

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.

When North Korea imposed strict pandemic border controls in Jan. 2020, the country simultaneously closed its door to international tourists and suspended a growing industry that brought in hundreds of thousands of travelers in 2019 alone. Yet while it’s unclear when the country will reopen, there’s still one way to explore North Korea as a tourist — by visiting border areas on the South Korean side.

This week, North Korean specialists and tour guides join the podcast to discuss how travelers can tour North Korea during the pandemic without ever stepping foot in the country. They share their experiences visiting the once open China-North Korea border, note the best places to look into the DPRK near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and preview the itinerary for an upcoming NK News tour to border areas.

This week’s episode features NK News founder Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl), Director of Korea Risk Group Andrei Lankov and Koryo Tours manager Gergő Váczi.

More details about the NK News tour “North Korea From a Near Distance,” scheduled for Sept. 23 to Oct. 2, 2022, are 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.

Two and a half years into the global COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea reported its first outbreak on May 12, with cases of “fever” quickly surpassing a million. How prepared is the DPRK to fight the spread of the virus and will the country finally accept foreign aid?

This week, NK News and NK PRO founder and CEO Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl), lead correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim) and Seoul correspondent Ifang Bremer (@ifangbremer) join the NK News Podcast to discuss the status of North Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak. 

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.

Several North Korean statues and other works of art are scattered across the African continent, a persistent presence that demonstrates North Korean influence in the region. While these works are often narrowly interpreted by the outside world as illicit revenue streams for Pyongyang, researcher OneJoon Che says North Korean art and sculptures cannot be fully understood unless we look at them through the eyes of the people that see them every day.

This week, OneJoon joins the NK News Podcast to discuss "International Friendship: The Gifts From Africa," his new photo book that traces the statues, monuments and buildings built by North Korea in Africa over the past 50 years.

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.