North Korea News Podcast by NK News

North Korea is no stranger to unilateral and international sanctions, and in recent years has developed a range of tricks to avoid scrutiny and guarantee much-needed flows of hard currency into its coffers.

In this episode of the “North Korea News Podcast”, we invited David Thompson, Senior Analyst at C4ADS covering East Asia and proliferation issues, to explore the types of sanctions currently levied against North Korea, transnational efforts to evade them, and debate the efficacy of such measures on regime coercion.

Thompson also delved into details from two C4AD reports for which he was the primary researcher and author: “Risky Business: A System-level Analysis of the North Korean Proliferation Financing System” (June 2017) and “In China’s Shadow” (September 2016). He also previously worked as a member of C4AD’s Environmental Crimes Fusion Cell, investigating the role of transnational criminal organizations in environmental crimes.

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 interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

*From now until March 31, we will be choosing one lucky listener every week to receive a free NK News subscription ($300 value). To enter, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes or the iOS Podcast app.

Announcing winners of the podcast review subscription giveaway: 

Week 1 (February 26 – March 4): Curtley Oakley

Week 2 (March 5 – 11): Edvenchers

Week 3 (March 12 – 18): extratooth

Week 4 (March 19 – 25): LTgovernor

Please contact Christina at [email protected] to redeem your free subscription, with proof of your username identity.

In this episode of the “North Korea News Podcast,” we switched gears from the buzz of inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. developments to discuss something a little more leftfield: a mysterious social network of agitprop cartoons and animations critical of the Kim Jong Un regime that have appeared in certain parts of the internet over the last few years.

Jacco Zwetsloot sat down with our very own Korea Risk Group CEO Chad O’Carroll to discuss his months-long investigation into this social media project that has possible government backing and how he first came across these strange cartoons, what they mean, and why they continue to pop up on Twitter and Instagram feeds.

“Its sole purpose seems to be to create online materials that are widely shared by people on social media, that are very critical about North Korea’s human rights record and also in particular about Kim Jong Un,” O’Carroll said.

“What was striking was that despite this steady stream of professionally-produced graphics, cartoons, videos, animations, there was almost no effort whatsoever to promote this stuff.”

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 interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

Announcing winners of the podcast review subscription giveaway: 

Week 1 (February 26 – March 4): Curtley Oakley

Week 2 (March 5 – 11): Edvenchers

Week 3 (March 12 – 18): extratooth

Please contact Christina Lee at [email protected] to redeem your free subscription, with proof of your username identity.

*From now until March 31, we will be choosing one lucky listener ever week to receive a free NK News subscription ($300 value). To enter, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes or the iOS podcast app.

Featured image: Twitter @xiakedao2017

In this episode of the North Korea News Podcast, NK News invited Dr. Adrian Buzo, a former Australian diplomat and now a lecturer in Korean at Macquarie University in Sydney, to discuss Australia-DPRK relations, his assessment of the current state of North Korean leadership, and how he came to write his 1999 book “Politics and Leadership in North Korea: The Guerilla Dynasty,” which underwent an update in 2017.

Having arrived in South Korea in January 1972 as the newly appointed third secretary to the Australian embassy in Seoul, Buzo also witnessed the opening and closing of the first ever Australian embassy in Pyongyang, where he lived as a diplomat for several months.

His experience offers a unique insight into the regime’s diplomatic and political landscape of the late 20th century, while details of Buzo’s daily life in Pyongyang reveal how much the city has (or has not) changed since then.

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 interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

*From now until March 31, we will be choosing one lucky listener every week to receive a free NK News subscription ($300 value). To enter, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes or the iOS Podcast app.

Reflecting increasingly warm inter-Korean relations, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed (via Twitter) his willingness to meet face-to-face with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un this year in what would be the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a member of the ruling Kim family.

In this episode of the “North Korea News Podcast”, we are joined by NK News Managing Director Chad O’Carroll, Director of Korea Risk Group and Professor of North Korean History Dr. Andrei Lankov, and Analyst Fyodor Tertitskiy to discuss how we got to this point and the long road still ahead.

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 interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

*From now until March 31, we will be choosing one lucky listener every week to receive a free NK News subscription ($300 value). To enter, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes or the iOS Podcast app.

With a South Korean delegation currently in Pyongyang and the Winter Paralympics set to start on Thursday, it is certainly an interesting time for inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. relations.

In this episode of the North Korea News podcast, NK News Managing Editor Oliver Hotham, Senior Correspondent Dagyum Ji, and NK Pro analyst Fyodor Tertitskiy gathered on March 1 (Independence Movement Day) to discuss the aftermath of the PyeongChang Olympics.

Also discussed was the controversial visit of Kim Yong Chol to South Korea, the timing of Joseph Yun’s retirement, and what we can expect at the Paralympics as we wait for the annual U.S.-ROK military drills.

From now until March 31, we will be choosing one lucky listener every week to receive a free NK News subscription ($300 value). To enter, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes or the iOS Podcast app.

Back in December 2017, most people would have found it hard to believe that North Korea would be participating in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, let alone inviting President Moon Jae-in to Pyongyang at “an early date” or expressing their openness to engage in dialogue with the U.S.

But in an interview with NK News last year, Dr. Georgy D. Toloraya, a Professor of Oriental Studies at Moscow University of International Relations University and director of the Center of Asian strategy at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that North Korea’s “completion of a state nuclear force” offered a window of opportunity for dialogue.

“I believe that this is the perfect chance to start a peace-building process and if it would start from the Olympics, then that would still be highly symbolic,” he told NK News.

Fast forward to the end of the Olympics, with inter-Korean relations significantly improved, and even the possibility of a North Korea-U.S. dialogue on the table.

Toloraya says the North would never succumb to CVID, the complete verifiable irreversible dismantlement, as they hold the nuclear program sacred. What, then, can the U.S. and North Korea talk about, and how are things really progressing in terms of inter-Korean and U.S.-DPRK dialogue?

In this episode of the “North Korea News Podcast,” host Jacco Zwetsloot sat down with Dr. Toloraya to discuss how the Korean Peninsula is faring post-Olympics, and how Russia (and the Soviet Union) managed to balance relations with both Koreas over the years.

They also delved into Dr. Toloraya’s extensive experience working in Pyongyang in the 1970s and 80s (when he also briefly met our first podcast guest Andrei Lankov), in contrast to working in Seoul as the Minister-Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Russian Embassy in the 90s, when Kim Il Sung passed away leaving Kim Jong Un in power, high-ranking North Korean official Hwang Jang Yop defected to South Korea, and two North Korean submarines were caught in South Korean waters.

Got a suggestion for our next topic or guest? Let us know at [email protected].

Featured image: Kremlin.ru

With U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and North Korea’s high-level delegation back in their respective home turf after their weekend at the PyeongChang Olympics, it’s time to discuss the state of inter-Korean and U.S.-Korea relations.

In the second episode of “North Korea News Podcast,” host Jacco Zwetsloot sat down with members of Seoul’s NK News team to discuss the political events that unfolded during the PyeongChang Olympics opening week.

NK News Managing Director Chad O’Carroll, Managing Editor Oliver Hotham, and Analyst Fyodor Tertitskiy weigh in on North Korea’s choice of representatives at the high-level delegation, the quick turnaround of an inter-Korean summit, why Pyongyang may not continue nuclear tests, and the continued absence of a U.S. diplomat in Seoul.

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 interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

There are thousands of news podcasts out there in the audio world, hosted by some of the world’s leading news agencies and think tanks. But there is one topic that has yet to be covered with any depth or regularity: North Korea.

To fill this void, NK News is launching a new weekly podcast this February to update readers on what we do best – getting behind the North Korea headlines with insight and analysis from some of the world’s leading experts on the country, defector voices, former residents and leading international observers.

Hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot, director of business development at HMP law firm by day and a keen North Korea watcher by night, the “North Korea News Podcast” will cover all things DPRK: from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.

The podcast builds on the success of Kurt Achin’s work between 2014-2015 for an earlier iteration of the NK News podcast, which ran for 23 episodes and can be listened to here.

This new English language program is available directly on the NK News site, as well as on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio, Youtube, and other podcast hosting directories.

“Despite global interest in North Korea issues having surged in 2017 to unprecedented levels, there is surprisingly no dedicated podcast to exploring the subject,” said Korea Risk Group managing director Chad O’Carroll.

“As the leading provider of specialist news, analysis and data on North Korea, we are looking forward to help our listeners get behind the headlines each week in this new podcast.”

In its pilot episode, NK News interviewed leading North Korea expert Andrei Lankov, the Director of Korea Risk Group and Professor at Kookmin University in Seoul. Having recently returned from a trip to Yanji, which he wrote about here, Lankov shared more details from the trip, looked at how UN sanctions are impacting the Sino-DPRK relationship, and discussed how South Korea is faring under President Moon Jae-in almost one year since his election.

Read an excerpt from the episode:

Jacco Zwetsloot: When you are in Yanji, how do you actually go about approaching a North Korean informant? 

Andrei Lankov: Ten, fifteen years ago, you could basically walk into a market and come across a North Korean easily. This is ancient history now. Now you have to use your networks to establish trust and make contact.

Jacco Zwetsloot: Yanji is a city where you can find North Korean refugees escaping from North Korea but also North Korean officials. That seems like a potential volatile or dangerous mix. Are the refugees shy about talking to outsiders? 

Andrei Lankov: If they have recommendations and they believe the security is reasonably good, they are talking. And I’m not talking about politics, usually. They talk about daily life, economics, etc. In this trip, I have not seen a single refugee. Last time I did, but the numbers are very small now.

Jacco Zwetsloot: Why is that? 

Andrei Lankov: A few reasons. You will hear that control on the border is much tighter than before. It’s true. Starting from–I remember the days in 2005 to 2008, when the border with China was essentially unprotected.

There were no fences, no patrols, no nothing on the Chinese side of the border. Anyone could go to the border and stay near the river and in winter when the river is frozen, it was quite possible to walk to North Korea. The North Koreans were much better in border control, but the Chinese didn’t care. It was essentially an open border, practically the same border as the United States and Canada. But that’s not the case anymore.

Listen to the full episode here: