North Korea News Podcast by NK News

A four-hour ferry ride from South Korea’s west coast takes one to a remote island so far north that it seems like it would be in North Korea. Yet Baengnyeong Island remains, improbably, a part of the South, and this far-flung location on the country’s frontier has been at the center of several important events in inter-Korean history — including the infamous sinking of the ROKS Cheonan.

This week, NK News podcast host Jacco Zwetsloot takes listeners on a special audio tour of South Korea’s westernmost island, uncovering its history and talking with residents and experts about its significance to the two Koreas. Part travelogue, part interview, this episode explores how the island plays into disputes with North Korea over fishing rights, the DPRK’s abductions of South Korean nationals, life on the heavily militarized territory within sight of the North 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.

The U.S. and South Korea have been trying to solve the North Korea nuclear issue for decades, yet Pyongyang continues to advance its weapons programs. This week, Christopher Green joins the podcast to talk about the past few years of diplomacy, missile tests and how to analyze the goings-on in the DPRK with a critical eye.

Christopher Green (@Dest_Pyongyang) is a senior consultant at Crisis Group and a lecturer at Leiden University.

Andrei Lankov's article for Surival that was mentioned in the podcast: "The Perspective from Pyongyang: Limits of Compromise"

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 celebrated the 110th birthday of Kim Il Sung in grand fashion last week, with thousands of pom-pom-waving citizens spelling out the founding leader’s name in massive characters, as a large float bearing a bronze statue of his likeness paraded across the square in central Pyongyang now named for him. It was a testament to the longevity of the so-called eternal leader’s cult of personality, which he burnished during his brutal decadeslong rule and which persists years after his death.

But what was Kim Il Sung like before he became the godlike figure endlessly praised in state propaganda and one of the most notorious dictators of the 20th century? 

This week, historian Brandon Gauthier joins the podcast to discuss Kim Il Sung’s early life and how the pivotal experiences of his youth resemble and differ from those of other totalitarian rulers. He talks about why it was important that Kim learned Chinese, his participation in armed struggle against Imperial Japan and whether scholars should attempt to humanize history’s most inhumane leaders.

Brandon Gauthier (@bk_gauthier) is the director of global education at The Derryfield School and an adjunct professor of history at Fordham University, as well as a former columnist for NK News. His new book about the early life of Kim Il Sung and other prominent autocrats — “Before Evil: Young Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, and Kim” — will be published on April 26 and is available for preorder at beforeevil.com.

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 Yongbyon complex located some 60 miles north of Pyongyang has been the center of North Korea’s nuclear program for decades, producing fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons tests. As the DPRK has not allowed independent experts to visit the site for years, analysts now pore over satellite imagery to divine the status of enrichment activity and estimate the number of warheads in its nuclear arsenal.

But back in the early 1990s, North Korea was relatively more open about the complex as it negotiated and then implemented the Agreed Framework with the U.S. on freezing its nuclear program. And at that time, C. Kenneth Quinones became the first American to visit Yongbyon, as well as the first U.S. diplomat to meet with North Korean counterparts.

This week, Quinones joins the podcast to discuss the cumulative six months he spent in the DPRK over the years and his interactions with North Koreans. He shares his assessments of U.S. policy toward Pyongyang under Trump and Obama, his experience relaying messages between North and South during a flare-up in tensions, holding talks with North Korean diplomats in New York over bagels and orange juice, and more. 

C. Kenneth Quinones is a former U.S. diplomat and a retired professor of East Asian history at Akita International University in Japan. His most recent book, “Imperial Japan’s Allied Prisoners of War in the South Pacific: Surviving Paradise,” was released in December.

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 unique characteristic of North Korean life is that almost all citizens must be a member of an organization. This begins at a young age, when kindergarten students learn to bow in unison to portraits of the country’s leaders. It ramps up in adolescence through participation in the Boy and Girl Scout-like Korean Children’s Union. And it continues in adulthood through membership in labor unions, the women’s union, the farmer’s union, the army and an array of other organizations — chief among them the Workers’ Party of Korea.

These organizations oversee what’s known in the DPRK as organizational life (조직생활), a term encompassing ideological education, self-criticism sessions and more. This week, North Korean defector Jung Yuna joins the podcast to discuss the ins and outs of this inescapable part of life in the DPRK, as well as her own experiences in the country and her current work as a YouTuber in South Korea.

Jung Yuna is a North Korean defector and human rights activist who now runs the popular Jung Yuna TV (정유나 TV) YouTube channel. You can follow her on Instagram @loveyuna88.

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 tested one of its biggest weapons for the first time in years last week, launching a long-range missile that soared 15 times higher than the international space station before splashing down in waters west of Japan. The DPRK soon claimed that it fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), with state media airing a dramatically edited video showing leader Kim Jong Un guiding the launch of the monstrous weapon.

While analysts have cast doubt on North Korea’s claim that it successfully test-fired a Hwasong-17, the launch still marked a significant escalation of tensions that prompted a military counter-response from South Korea and calls for new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang.

This week, NK News reporters and analysts join the podcast to discuss whether the launch breached Kim Jong Un’s moratorium on long-range missile testing, how the test fits into North Korea’s long-term weapons development goals, the looming possibility of renewed nuclear weapons testing and more.

This week’s episode features the following members of the NK News team: Founder Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl), Director of Korea Risk Group Andrei Lankov, Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko (@ColinZwirko) and Lead Correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim).

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.

There’s no shortage of YouTube content on North Korea, from straightforward news reports on the latest missile launch to over-the-top travelogues promising a rare glimpse into the world’s “most depressing” country. While informative videos exist on the platform, it can be difficult to separate hard facts from misleading exaggeration or even outright falsehoods with so many channels vying for viewers’ attention.

This week, two prominent YouTubers join the podcast to discuss how they seek to cut through the noise with their own videos about North Korea that both entertain and inform. Bart van Genugten of iGoBart and Benjamin Weston of DPRK Explained talk about what led them to start posting content on the website, their travels inside North Korea, interviewing veterans of the Korean War and more.

Bart van Genugten (@BartGenugten) is a Dutch travel vlogger and YouTube documentary filmmaker living in Korea, as well as a video producer for NK News. 

Benjamin Weston (@BenWestonDPRK) is a former Koryo Tours tour manager and international submissions coordinator for the Pyongyang International Film Festival. He currently lives in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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.

Mountains loom large in North Korea, not only dominating the topography but also much of the political symbolism of the regime. The country’s history books tell tales about the heroic exploits of Kim Il Sung and his revolutionaries battling against Japanese imperialists from mountain outposts. Mount Paektu on the Chinese border is the alleged birthplace of Kim Jong Il. Mount Kumgang on the east coast is renowned for its natural beauty and once drew thousands of South Koreans as part of an inter-Korean tourism project.

The terrain of the Korean Peninsula and the role it plays in the lives of the North Korean people attracted the attention of one Swiss mountain lover nearly a decade ago, leading to the development of a museum exhibition and film that explores the relationship between the country and its topography. This week, Beat Hachler joins the podcast to discuss the way mountains connect the people who live near them, his team's travels to both North and South Korea for the film and why the project was the most difficult one he’s ever undertaken.

Hachler is the director of the Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern and organizer of the museum’s ongoing exhibition “Let’s Talk About Mountains: A Filmic Approach to North 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.

Journalists, experts and pundits have devoted significant time and energy to deciphering Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in late February, with many seeing the Russian leader as motivated by a desire to rebuild the Soviet Union and correct the historical mistake of its dissolution. The war has raised parallels with the situation on the Korean Peninsula, where for more than 70 years North Korean leaders have resolved to achieve the “final victory” of reunification, with some arguing that the DPRK could even leverage nationalistic propaganda and nuclear blackmail to force the South’s capitulation.

This week, four North Korea experts join the podcast to discuss what Pyongyang really means by “final victory” and how it might go about achieving its long-term goals on the peninsula. Building on an NK News article making the case that Kim Jong Un seeks regime survival through unification and a rebuttal arguing that the DPRK is too aware of its weaknesses to risk war, the experts draw comparisons to other countries’ situations, analyze North Korea’s words and actions and consider whether Seoul would go along with what Pyongyang wants.

This week’s debate features the following participants:

Benjamin R. Young (@DubstepInDPRK), assistant professor of homeland security and emergency preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University

Jean Do, assistant professor in the Institute of Humanities for Unification at Konkuk University

Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us), founder of the blog OneFreeKorea

Glyn Ford, a former member of the European Parliament and the director of Track2Asia

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.

Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine may be half a world away from the Korean Peninsula, but the implications of the two-week-old conflict are already being felt in Pyongyang and Seoul. North Korea has rallied behind its longtime friend Russia, while South Korea initially hesitated to sign onto economic sanctions against Moscow. ROK presidential candidates have also cited the war to justify their inter-Korean policies and discredit their opponents’ qualifications.

NK News reporters join the podcast for a roundtable discussion on links between Ukraine and North Korea, apparent contradictions in Pyongyang's position and whether the war represents the final nail in the coffin for DPRK denuclearization prospects.

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

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.