North Korea News Podcast by NK News

CNN International Correspondent Will Ripley has visited North Korea a whopping 19 times since 2014, reporting on missile launches and nuclear tests while inside the country and covering the DPRK’s release of Otto Warmbier in a coma as the only American reporter on the ground.

On this week’s podcast, he talks about everything from his interviews with American detainees and sit-downs with high-level DPRK officials, to the goal of one day interviewing Kim Jong Un and why he feels his team can often do better reporting without a permanent presence in Pyongyang. 

“Every trip inside North Korea I feel like we peeled back the layer of the onion a little more,” he tells NK News. “That said, you also do realize the more you travel there how much you really don’t know.”

Ripley has worked as a journalist for two decades and currently covers breaking news across the Asia-Pacific from CNN’s headquarters in Hong Kong. He previously worked as the network’s Tokyo correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter @willripleyCNN.

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 his 24 years as a correspondent for CNN, Mike Chinoy had the opportunity to cover key moments in North Korean history from inside the country, from Jimmy Carter’s visit and the aftermath of Kim Il Sung’s death to a military parade held amid unprecedented famine. He joins the podcast to discuss what it’s like to report on the ground from a country that at first seemed like the “weirdest place on the face of the Earth,” and recounts experiences like his meeting with an “avuncular” Kim Il Sung and much more.

“If you look at North Korea as a jigsaw puzzle of a hundred pieces, going there gives you a few pieces that you don’t have if you’re trying to put together the puzzle from the outside,” he says.

Chinoy is a nonresident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s U.S.-China Institute and a former senior Asia correspondent at CNN. He is the author of four books, including his 2008 book “Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.” You can find him on Twitter at @mikechinoy.

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.

Recently, there have been reports that the Netflix hit “Squid Game” has made it into North Korea, and even that authorities have sentenced a man to death for smuggling copies of the violent drama. Yet experts have expressed doubt about these claims due to the DPRK’s ongoing COVID-19 controls.

This week, NK News reporters join the podcast to weigh in on the possibility that North Koreans are secretly watching the show, as well as to discuss a range of recent events on and around the Korean Peninsula. The roundtable conversation turns to whether the DPRK will accept a U.N. offer of more than 6 million vaccines, why Kim Jong Un is taking extended breaks from public view and what South Korean presidential candidates think about North Korea issues, among other topics.

This week’s episode features the following members of the NK News team: analyst James Fretwell (@JamesFretwe11), correspondent Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim), senior analytic correspondent Colin Zwirko (@ColinZwirko) and founder Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl).

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 Korean propagandists have churned out a steady stream of cultural products for domestic and foreign audiences over the years — from films, TV shows and radio dramas to comic books and flashy music videos. While always laced with state ideology, these works also evolve in response to changing circumstances and leaders’ whims, providing another window into what’s happening in the DPRK.

This week, Professor Tatiana Gabroussenko joins the podcast to tease out the significance of the latest trends in North Korean culture. She argues that Kim Jong Un has steered cultural policy in a more conservative direction in recent years, while also touching on the country’s appropriation of South Korean culture and the potentially dangerous appeal of Pyongyang’s propaganda.

Tatiana Gabroussenko is a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University and writes for NK News about DPRK culture. Her most recent columns have covered standup comedy, counterproductive propaganda films and children’s entertainment.

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 North Korean delegation recently joined the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, one of the first times DPRK representatives have attended such an event in person since the pandemic began. Yet North Korea’s participation was no anomaly: The country has long joined international efforts to combat global warming, including the Paris Agreement and U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This week, analyst and NK Pro contributor Gabriela Bernal joins the podcast to discuss Pyongyang’s approach to global warming and the serious environmental challenges that the country faces, such as widespread flooding in recent years. She also explores North Korea’s efforts for wildlife conservation and her own journey to becoming a specialist on the DPRK.

Gabriela Bernal (@gabrielabbernal) is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Korean Studies and a translator for Daily NK, as well as the founder of The Peninsula Report blog.

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 Arduous March famine of the 1990s forced many North Korean women to engage in informal economic activity to support their families, even as the state required their husbands to continue reporting to official but unpaid jobs. The result was that many women came to be their families’ primary breadwinners in a traditionally patriarchal society. 

Hanna Song of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) joins the NK News Podcast to discuss how this change in gender roles has impacted relationships between husbands and wives in the DPRK. She also explains the latest developments at NKDB, the difficulty of arranging interviews with North Korean refugees and why the six-year veteran of NKDB doesn’t want it to be her life’s work.

Song is the director of international cooperation at NKDB and previously worked at the organization as a researcher. The full Korean-language report discussed in this episode, as well as an English-language summary, are available at NKDB’s website.

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.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in traveled to Europe late last month to attend the G-20 summit in Rome and COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, among other diplomatic meetings, and North Korea also made headlines by sending a delegation to the U.N. climate conference. But they weren’t the only ones in town: NK News’ own Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim) and Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl) visited Stockholm and London from late October to get the scoop on debates about North Korea taking place in European capitals.

Jeongmin and Chad join the podcast to discuss what they learned during their trips, discussing topics ranging from an end-of-war denuclearization and humanitarian aid to denuclearization. NK News Managing Editor Arius Derr (@AriusDerr) also weighs in on the possibility that Pope Francis will visit Pyongyang and the DPRK’s call to dismantle the U.N. Command, with the conversation turning to South Korea’s upcoming presidential election, a sanctions relief proposal at the U.N. and much 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.

Yeonmi Park burst onto the scene at the One Young World Summit in Dublin in 2014, when she recounted her life story and appealed for action on North Korean human rights in an emotional speech that went viral online. In the years since, Park has become arguably the world’s most famous North Korean defector, relocating from South Korea to the U.S. to write a memoir and starting a YouTube channel that now boasts 760,000 followers. She has also been no stranger to controversy, with critics alleging inaccuracies in her defection account and sensationalism in her remarks about the DPRK.

This week, Park joins the podcast for a wide-ranging discussion about her life and activism. She talks about experiences ranging from her childhood in the DPRK and defection in 2007, to her time in China and South Korea and new life in the U.S. She also addresses the need to fact-check claims about North Korea, her increasing political outspokenness and why she holds out hope that North Koreans’ situation will improve.

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.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, South Korean forces killed thousands of political prisoners in Daejeon to prevent them from joining the North Koreans that were rapidly advancing south. The massacre has featured prominently in DPRK propaganda, but it only became a topic for public discussion in South Korea in recent decades with the declassification of U.S. documents and a high-profile government investigation.

Journalist David Miller joins the podcast to discuss his research into the massacre and what the writings of British communist Alan Winnington tell us about what happened. He also delves into the importance of fact-finding as a way to cut through politicized narratives and find closure and healing.

David Miller is the international adviser to local authorities conducting research at the site of the Daejeon Massacre. He has written about his research and has contributed to multiple films about the massacre, including the KBS documentary “The Longest Grave in the World.” He can be contacted at [email protected].

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 7,600 Americans are still missing from the Korean War, according to the U.S. government. While North Korea returned some U.S. servicemembers’ remains following the first U.S.-DPRK summit in 2018, the repatriation process has ground to a halt since the breakdown of denuclearization talks in 2019.

This week, retired U.S. Army Col. Ashton Ormes joins the podcast to discuss his many years at the front line of efforts to negotiate the return of Americans’ remains from North Korea. Ormes also talks about his multiple periods of service in Korea over the years, including his stint as secretary of the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission, as well as the time he delivered $2 million in cash to his North Korean counterparts.

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.