North Korea News Podcast by NK News

Seoul’s ongoing efforts to provide an $8 million humanitarian aid package to North Korea via the World Food Program and UNICEF (and the obstacles encountered) demonstrate the enormous resources necessary to navigate international sanctions against the North.

Daniel Wertz has for years analyzed the sanctions regime and its impact on the North Korean economy, recently publishing a paper for the Korea Economic Institute on how the U.S. can turn "maximum pressure" into maximum leverage.

Daniel Wertz is the Program Manager at The National Committee on North Korea. He manages research and publications at NCNK, and is also the lead researcher and editor of North Korea in the World.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: UNICEF

Kim Jong Un has placed scientific development and innovation at the forefront of his economic policies, placing new resources in front of North Korean scientists previously unavailable to them for many years. These researchers are collaborating with a number of overseas counterparts, publishing data that offers a peek inside Pyongyang’s scientific priorities.

Researcher Joshua Pollack combed through thousands of published journal articles to reveal the surprisingly international scientific community in North Korea.

On this week's podcast, he discusses what North Korean scientists are studying, who they are collaborating with, and if their research runs against international sanctions.

Joshua H. Pollack is a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and editor of the Nonproliferation Review.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: DPRK Today

Key to any economic development in North Korea, or anywhere else, is the electricity that supports expanding commercial and industrial activity.

But the North has a dilapidated, balkanized electric grid made up of a hodgepodge of Cold War-era and repurposed parts running different currents of electricity.

Quite simply, the country cannot power the economic growth Kim Jong Un says he wants with the current power system in place.

Peter Hayes has researched the issue of energy security in North Korea for decades, and sits down with the podcast to talk about electricity, environmentalism, and what it takes to gain mutual trust from North Korean decision-makers.

Professor Peter Hayes is an Honorary Professor at the Center for International Security Studies at Sydney University and Director of the Nautilus Institute in Berkeley, California.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: KCNA

North Korea went to Hanoi thinking they had a deal. But it suddenly went sideways, leaving both Washington and Pyongyang with nothing in hand and no progress made towards the denuclearization of the peninsula.

Ambassador Robert Gallucci knows better than most what it's like to negotiate with the North, having worked as chief U.S. negotiator during the North Korean nuclear crisis of 1994 and as a key architect of that year's Agreed Framework between the two countries.

We sat down with Gallucci at the Jeju Forum in May to get his thoughts on the current administration's North Korea strategy, the importance of working-level talks, and why he believes the two countries are yet to reach a deal.

Ambassador Robert Gallucci now works as a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: White House

The U.S.’s presence on and approach to the Korean peninsula is based on a conventional understanding of its role in the world, in Asia, and the ways in which the country achieves its foreign policy goals.

Doug Bandow has for years fought against the mainstream “blob” in D.C., arguing that America’s activities and alliance commitments – as currently exercised in the world – do not reflect the realities of geopolitics and national security goals in 2019.

In this week's episode, we ask Bandow what Washington can do to engage North Korea, evaluate the current administration’s top-down diplomatic efforts, look into parallels between the DPRK and Iran, and learn why he believes it’s time for a phased reduction in U.S. military presence on the peninsula.

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties. He worked as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: KCNA

While U.S. President Donald Trump last year declared an end to the nuclear threat from North Korea and South Korean President Moon Jae-in declared just last week that Washington and Pyongyang have now brought an end to hostile relations, not everyone is quite so rosy-eyed about North Korea's intentions.

Joshua Stanton, an attorney and writer, has long argued that the best way to change Pyongyang's behavior is to get tough, through a concerted and targeted campaign of new sanctions and efforts to bring down the state from within.

This week, Stanton speaks to the NK News Podcast about prospects for "maximum pressure" in an era of U.S.-DPRK diplomacy, what he sees as North Korea's long-term goals, as well as a lack of transparency in how think tanks that focus on the Koreas are often funded.

Joshua Stanton runs a blog called "One Free Korea," and describes himself as "South Dakota’s foremost authority on North Korea." He served in the U.S. Army in South Korea from 1998 to 2002, and works as a lawyer in Washington, D.C.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: White House

Beijing and Pyongyang have held five summits in the past 16 months, with Xi Jinping making his first trip to North Korea just two weeks ago.

Dr. Seong-hyon Lee has analyzed the North Korea-China relationship for years, and discusses how China interprets the nuclear issue, the personal relationship between Xi and Kim Jong Un, Chinese views on inter-Korean relations, and more.

Dr. Lee is the director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, and has given lectures and conferences at universities worldwide. He is also the author of numerous books, policy briefs, and articles on the national security and foreign policy of China, North Korea, and East Asia.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: KCNA

Sunday saw an extraordinary meeting take place on the inter-Korean border, between Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump -- and waiting on the sidelines -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

A meeting purportedly organized at the very last minute on the initiative of the U.S. President, the talks were the first between the two leaders since their acrimonious no-deal Hanoi summit, and followed months of diplomatic stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang.

And while it was light on substance, there's little doubt that it was big on theatrics, with Trump even choosing to make history by becoming the first sitting U.S. President to step foot in the North.

Hoping to make sense of the surprise summit, NK News journalists Chad O'Carroll, Oliver Hotham, and Colin Zwirko, as well as senior analyst Minyoung Lee, sat down early Monday morning to discuss the historic meeting, how it panned out, and what it means for U.S.-DPRK diplomacy going forward.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: White House

This episode is part four of a special summer miniseries on the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students. You can listen to part one here, part two here, and part three here.

The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in the North Korean capital almost thirty years ago next month. A global gathering of international Communist Party-affiliated youth organizations, it represented something of a last hurrah for a world that was soon to disappear in a storm of revolution and unrest.

Hosted by North Korea — in large part as a response to the South’s successful hosting of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games — the festival cost the country billions and saw thousands of international students descend on Pyongyang for an event devoted to “Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship.”

The International Union of Students, headquartered in communist Czechoslovakia, was a primary organizing body of the 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang, and as such a closer look at its role can provide us with a unique interpretation of the event from an institutional perspective.

For the first time, Dr. Vladimir Hlasny has accessed and synthesized Cold War-era archives dating back to the 1950s to better understand the union, its approach to the festival, how it saw Pyongyang’s execution of the event, and its place in the communist world.

Dr. Vladimir Hlasny of economics at Ewha Women's University in Seoul. His research is normally in the areas of welfare economics, labor economics, and industrial organization. In 2015 he served as an economic affairs officer at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in Beirut.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: DPRK Today

Solving the North Korean nuclear issue is not a South Korean problem or an American one, but rather a global conundrum that will require the weight of the world’s international institutions to resolve. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is one such institution.

NK News managing editor Oliver Hotham was fortunate enough to recently sit down with CTBTO head Dr. Lassina Zerbo to discuss the CTBTO’s role on the Korean peninsula, the "definition" of denuclearization, and how the treaty can help narrow the chasm between Washington and Pyongyang.

Dr. Lassina Zerbo is the Executive Secretary of the CTBT Organization. During a professional career spanning nearly 25 years, Dr. Zerbo has developed expertise ranging from scientific and technical competencies to results-based management and multilateral diplomacy.

About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interview with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Featured image: KCNA