North Korea News Podcast by NK News

During Kim Jong Un’s first decade in power, the North Korean state has executed at least 23 people for crimes ranging from prostitution and “obscene acts” to watching South Korea media, according to a recent report from the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based human rights organization.

This week, TJWG researcher Ahyeong Park joins the podcast to discuss the work that went into documenting these killings and how state executions have changed since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011. She explains how the organization collects and verifies testimony from defectors, propaganda efforts to portray Kim as a benevolent leader through pardons and the long-term goal of achieving justice for victims.

Ahyeong Park is a researcher with TJWG and the lead author of “Mapping Killings Under Kim Jong Un: North Korea’s Response to International Pressure.”

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.

Tom McDevitt discusses Sun Myung Moon’s meeting with Kim Il Sung in 1991 and the importance of engaging North Korea. On the surface, the anti-communist leader of the Unification movement, commonly known as the Unification Church, and the leader of North Korea had little room for reconciliation. However, Moon traveled to Pyongyang to meet with Kim in 1991, and his church has pushed several investment initiatives in the DPRK.

This week, Tom McDevitt, chairman of The Washington Times, joins the podcast to discuss that visit and the importance of engaging North Korea to change the country and bring it into the international community.

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.

More than 20 years ago, the senior North Korean official Hwang Jang-yop walked into the South Korean Embassy in China and declared his intention to defect. His actions triggered a diplomatic standoff with Beijing and brought forth a stream of attacks from Pyongyang’s state media. He was the highest-ranking defector ever from the DPRK, having previously served as the architect of North Korea’s state ideology of self-reliance and as a mentor to Kim Jong Il.

This week, author John Cha joins the podcast to discuss Hwang and his legacy in both North and South Korea. Cha, who interviewed Hwang and wrote about his life in a 2012 book, talks about why the former president of Kim Il Sung University defected, his life in the South and his vision for bringing democracy to the DPRK.

John Cha (@AuthorJCha) is the author of several biographies about Korean and American leaders and is an award-winning translator of Korean literature into English. His book “Exit Emperor Kim Jong Il: Notes from His Former Mentor” tells the story of Hwang Jang-yop and his insights into the Kim family regime.

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.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes had wrapped up a reporting trip in North Korea and was about to board a flight out of the country when the ordeal started. The authorities suddenly detained him and took him for questioning, demanding that he confess to crimes against the state in an interrogation that extended late into the night.

This week, Wingfield-Hayes joins the podcast to share the story of his headline-grabbing detention by North Korea ahead of its Seventh Party Congress in 2016. The BBC Tokyo correspondent describes how his persistent questioning and blogging landed him in hot water, recounts the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to his release and reflects on how journalists can stay safe while reporting truthfully from inside the DPRK.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes (@wingcommander1) is a longtime BBC journalist who has worked as the broadcaster’s Tokyo correspondent since 2012. He previously served as a BBC correspondent in China, Russia and the Middle East.

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 rang in the lunar new year with a dramatic fireworks display this week, testing a ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam in its longest-range launch since 2017. The firing of the Hwasong-12 into the East Sea capped a busy January in which Pyongyang set a new record by conducting seven missile tests in a single calendar month — raising alarm in Seoul and Washington.

This week, the NK News team and international security expert Ankit Panda team up to examine this sudden barrage of testing and what it all means. In a wide-ranging discussion also available to watch on YouTube, they explore the domestic and external factors driving these tests, political reactions from South Korea and the U.S., technical details about the weapons themselves and more.

Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) is a Stanton senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as a regular contributor to NK Pro. 

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

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.

Ever since the breakdown of talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump at Hanoi in 2018, prospects for denuclearization have grown increasingly dim. Yet there is historical precedent for a country to give up its nuclear weapons — South Africa — and some hold out hope that diplomacy might yet lead to a breakthrough on North Korea.

This week, Jenny Town of the website 38 North joins the podcast to talk about what has gone wrong in negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, and what it would take to induce the DPRK to surrender its nukes. She also addresses parallels between the North Korean nuclear situation and India and Pakistan, the role of sanctions and incentives in changing Pyongyang’s behavior and the growing number of women in North Korean studies.

Jenny Town (@j3nnyt0wn) is a senior fellow at the Stimson Center and the director of Stimson’s 38 North program. She also serves as an expert reviewer for Freedom House’s Freedom in the World Index, an associate fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and in various other roles. 

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 new year has been an eventful one so far for North Korea watchers. Pyongyang has already test-launched missiles on four separate occasions. A defector who had settled in the South dramatically crossed the demilitarized zone to return to the North. Conservative presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol voiced support for a preemptive strike to stop North Korean missile attacks. And a freight train carrying goods entered the DPRK from China for the first time in 17 months.

Joining the podcast to discuss it all are key members of the NK News team — with an unexpected, ballistic interjection from Pyongyang live on air.

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.

Unification remains the official goal of inter-Korean policy on both sides of the Korean Peninsula, and the new Council on Diplomacy for Korean Unification (CDKU), founded by veterans of the country’s unification ministry, aims to keep the dream alive.

This week, Kim Hyeong-seok and J.R. Kim join the podcast to discuss their organization, which brings together retired unification ministry officials, scholars and other self-described “old-timers” of the North Korea watcher community to promote peaceful unification at the civilian level. They delve into what makes CDKU unique, their hopes to bring in younger voices and what they have planned for the future. 

Kim Hyeong-seok is a retired official of South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, serving as vice minister of unification from 2016-2017, and is now president of CDKU. Dr. J.R. Kim is currently director-general without portfolio at the unification ministry, where he most recently served as acting head of the North Korea Human Rights Center, and is vice president and secretary-general of CDKU.

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.

Updated on Jan. 13, 2021 at 2:05 p.m. KST to correct problem with podcast audio.

This January marks 10 years since the Associated Press became the first U.S. news agency to establish a bureau in Pyongyang. The opening gave the organization a unique vantage point from which to report on notoriously secretive North Korea, but also raised questions about how operating in the country might influence coverage.

As the AP’s Korean Peninsula bureau chief at the time, Jean Lee spearheaded efforts to open the Pyongyang bureau, and this week she joins the podcast to discuss the work that went into it and her numerous reporting trips to North Korea. Along the way, she shares her views on the advantages of having a more regular reporting presence in the country, addresses questions about pulling punches due to security concerns and responds to a report that the AP agreed to distribute DPRK state media articles.

Jean H. Lee is an award-winning writer, commentator and expert on North Korea currently serving as co-host of The Lazarus Heist podcast for the BBC World Service and as a senior fellow with the Wilson Center think tank. You can follow her on Twitter @newsjean.

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 began 2021 with a major party conference and is now ending it with a multi-day plenum. Somewhere in the between, a lot else happened: Disinfection centers sprang up. Kim Jong Un lost weight. Health officials in hazmat suits goose-stepped through Pyongyang. Both Koreas launched an assortment of new weapons.

With 2022 right around the corner, the NK News team joins the podcast to look back on the year that was, and ahead to the year to come. They discuss their favorite articles, movies and drama about North Korea and the year’s biggest events, as well as give their boldest (and not-so-bold) predictions on what will happen in the DPRK next year.

This week’s episode features the following members of the NK News team: founder Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl), senior analytic correspondent Colin Zwirko (@ColinZwirko) 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.