North Korea News Podcast by NK News

Nam Bada joins the podcast to talk about PSCORE (People for Successful Corean Reunification), how his organization helps defectors adjust to South Korean society, North Korean human rights abuses and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

Nam Bada is PSCORE's Secretary General and has worked with the organization since 2010.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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 full roster of NK News journalists and contributors joins the podcast this week for a special Ask Me Anything roundtable discussion in celebration of 200 episodes. 

With drinks in hand, the team responds to reader inquiries on a range of North Korea topics — from missile launches, reunification prospects and an end of war declaration to celebrity defectors, dating apps and inopportune breaking news stories.

This week’s episode features the following guests:

Andrei Lankov (@andreilankov) is a director at Korea Risk Group and writes exclusively for NK News as one of the world's leading authorities on North Korea.

Peter Ward (@rpcward89) is a writer and researcher focusing on the North Korean economy, as well as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vienna.

Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl) is the founder of NK News and a journalist from London, based in Seoul.

Arius Derr (@AriusDerr) is the managing editor at NK News.

Colin Zwirko (@ColinZwirko) is a senior analytic correspondent for NK News.

Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim) is a correspondent at NK News. She previously worked for the CSIS Korea Chair and in the Seoul bureau of Reuters news agency. 

Gaby Magnuson (@gaby_magnuson) is the podcast producer for NK News.

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.

Scholars Mason Richey and David Tizzard join the podcast to discuss their new academic volume “The Future of the Korean Peninsula: Korea 2032 and Beyond,” which they co-edited along with Jagannath P. Panda.

Our guests dive into the significance of the year 2032 for North and South Korea and explain why they chose to analyze the two sides as a single entity, while arguing that confederation remains an unlikely path to inter-Korean reconciliation.

Mason Richey is an associate professor of international politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. David A. Tizzard is an assistant professor at Seoul Women’s University, and you can find him on Twitter @Hesp365.

The NK News Podcast will release a special “Ask Me Anything” episode to celebrate 200 shows next week. We invite listeners to send questions for Jacco and the NK News team to [email protected], or as responses to this tweet.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

Maiko Takeuchi joins the podcast to discuss her role in the United Nations (U.N.) Panel of Experts (PoE), which analyzes information for reports on North Korean sanctions implementation that are submitted to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). She was a member of the PoE from April 2016 to April 2021.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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 marks the release of the NK News podcast’s 200th episode. As though to celebrate the occasion, the DPRK has produced a number of newsworthy events in recent days, including a nighttime military parade and long-range cruise missile tests.

For this roundtable episode, a large roster of NK News journalists and contributors joins host Jacco Zwetsloot to discuss what happened and what it all means. They cover both the parade and missile tests, as well as the upcoming U.N. Panel of Experts report, the COVID-19 situation in the DPRK, the latest trade data, anti-China sentiment in South Korea and more.

This episode features the following guests: Professor Andrei Lankov, a director at Korea Risk Group; Peter Ward, a researcher on North Korean politics and contributing analyst to NK Pro; and NK News reporters Colin Zwirko, Jeongmin Kim, Wongi Jung, Chaewong Chung and Seung-Yeon Chung.

Next week, the podcast will continue to celebrate 200 episodes with a special “Ask Me Anything” episode. We invite listeners to send questions for Jacco and the NK News team to [email protected], or as responses to this tweet.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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 Aug. 2014, Chinese state security personnel arrested the Canadian couple Kevin and Julia Garratt at a restaurant in the northeastern city of Dandong. Kevin, who had operated a coffee shop with his wife in the city since 2008, would end up spending the next 775 days in Chinese detention on accusations of espionage, in a case with numerous similarities to the arrest and ongoing incarceration of North Korea consultant Michael Spavor, as well as fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig.

As Spavor spends his 1,000th day in a Chinese prison, Kevin Garratt joins the podcast to discuss his own extended imprisonment at the same detention facility in Dandong, and his thoughts on the two Michaels’ cases and Beijing’s “hostage diplomacy.”

"It's heartbreaking that we are now at the two Michaels 1,000-day incarceration anniversary,” NK News CEO Chad O’Carroll said. “When Michael Spavor was initially detained, I suspected this would be a case whereby he'd be free within 6-12 months maximum. Alas, we're now almost at the three-year phase. I really hope these guys can be freed soon.”

Please consider donating to help Michael Spavor here. Kevin and Julia Garratt’s book recounting their arrest and imprisonment, “Two Tears on the Window,” is available here.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

Music is an omnipresent part of North Korean life, from the eerie electronic ballad that plays every morning in Pyongyang to the propaganda tunes sung to accordion accompaniment at schools and workplaces. 

For this week’s episode, Professor Keith Howard joins the NK News podcast to discuss the role of music and dance as vehicles for North Korean state propaganda, as well as to listen to and analyze compositions about the country’s leaders. Howard also traces the origins of the DPRK’s music in calisthenic exercise during the Japanese colonial era, the development of traditional Korean instruments and North Korea’s uneasy relationship with the music of other countries, especially K-pop.

This week’s podcast features the following songs: “We Will Follow Only You," “Song of General Kim Il Sung” and “Mother.” Also mentioned is North Korean accordionists' cover of a-ha’s “Take on Me.”

Professor Keith Howard is an ethnomusicologist, musicologist and anthropologist with regional interests primarily in Korea but also Siberia, Nepal, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan and Zimbabwe. He is a professor emeritus and former head of department in the Department of Music, School of Arts at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of “Songs for ‘Great Leaders’: Ideology and Creativity in North Korean Music and Dance.” 

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

Less than three months after the outbreak of the Korean War, U.N. and ROK troops made their now-famous amphibious landing at Incheon and began to push north. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, from his perch in Tokyo, ordered troops to continue past the 38th parallel all the way to the border with China, ultimately triggering the PRC to send troops across the Yalu River and setting up the division of the Korean Peninsula that continues to this day.

On this week’s podcast, Jonathan Corrado and Markus Garlauskas discuss why MacArthur and the U.S. intelligence community failed to anticipate China’s eventual entry into the war. They argue that cognitive bias, the unusual free reign given to MacArthur and the general’s sycophantic advisers undermined abundant evidence of Beijing’s intention to intervene, and they consider what lessons this past intelligence failure has for the burgeoning strategic competition between the U.S. and China.

Jonathan Corrado is the director of policy for The Korea Society and a contributor to NK Pro. His article on China’s entry into the Korean War, discussed in this episode, is available here. You can follow him on Twitter @jcorrado1953.

Markus Garlauskas is a nonresident senior fellow affiliated with the Asia Security Initiative at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security of the Atlantic Council. He previously led the U.S. intelligence community’s strategic analysis on North Korea as the National Intelligence Officer for North Korea from July 2014 to June 2020. You can follow him on Twitter @Mister_G_2.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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 was the first country to stop all international travel following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Jan. 2020, and it may well be the last to reopen after the pandemic finally ends. The self-imposed lockdown has had huge consequences for the country’s economy — including the small but not insignificant tourism sector.

This week, three North Korea tourism professionals join the podcast for a roundtable discussion on the nature of the industry and what the future holds after the pandemic. Our guests — Rowan Beard, Simon Cockrell and Henry Marr — share their thoughts on the benefits of tourism for North Koreans and travelers, the challenges of working with DPRK travel agencies and how market forces have shaped the industry under Kim Jong Un.

Rowan Beard is the North Korea tours manager for Young Pioneers Tours.

Simon Cockrell is the general manager of Koryo Tours. You can find him on Instagram.

Henry Marr is the author of the third and most recent edition of the Bradt Travel Guide on North Korea.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.

Some 33,000 North Korean defectors have entered South Korea since 1998, but many report that they encounter discrimination in the South due to their backgrounds, as well as challenges stemming from culture and language differences between the two Koreas.

On this week’s podcast, Jihyun Kang and Marie Boes, founders of the fashion brand ISTORY, discuss the origin of their idea to use clothes and graphic design to improve the lives of North Korean resettlers and how they have sought to create a platform for defectors to counter stereotypes by sharing their experiences with a wider audience.

Jihyun Kang is a fashion designer from Chongjin in northeast North Korea who resettled in South Korea in 2012. Marie Boes, originally from Belgium, moved to South Korea from the United Kingdom in 2017 and currently runs a search engine optimization marketing agency as well the South Korean travel blog Be Marie Korea.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot 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.