This week, NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to discuss newly revealed DPRK state media footage that appears to blame Russia for North Korean casualties during fighting against Ukraine. He also talks about what President Lee Jae-myung said about the DPRK at a press conference to mark his first 100 days, as […]

This week, the NK News podcast explores the New York Times’ recent revelations about a 2019 U.S. Navy SEAL mission on North Korea’s coast. The operation reportedly aimed at installing surveillance equipment but went awry, resulting in the death of unarmed North Koreans and raising escalation risks. Mark Sauter, a former U.S. Army soldier with […]

This week, NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko joins the podcast to discuss North Korea’s “static firing test of a high-thrust solid-fuel motor” used in long-range nuclear missiles, a week after Kim Jong Un inspected a new ballistic missile design. The conversation then turns to Kim’s high-profile trip to Beijing, his first in six […]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his appearance at a large-scale multilateral event on Wednesday, standing shoulder to shoulder with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at China’s Victory Day parade in Beijing. But was this just optics, or did it mark a deeper realignment of global power blocs? NK News Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy […]

In this episode, Go Myong-hyun of Seoul’s Institute for National Security Strategy returns to the podcast to assess the recent summit between South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. He also looks ahead to Kim Jong Un’s expected appearance in Beijing on Sept. 3 for a Victory Day parade marking the […]

On this episode, scholar Joseph Torigian joins the podcast to discuss his new biography of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s father and Xi senior’s delicate diplomacy with North Korea in the 1980s. Torigian explores Xi Zhongxun’s role in rebuilding ties, navigating the DPRK’s succession politics and nudging Pyongyang toward reform. He also talks about how China […]

In this week’s episode, NK News Deputy Managing Editor Alannah Hill breaks down President Lee Jae-myung’s first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, where Lee appealed for Trump to take on a “peacemaker” role with Pyongyang.  She also discusses the flood of newly released state media footage showing North Korean troops in combat in Russia’s […]

In this episode, Tycho van der Hoog joins the podcast to explore how North Korea forged and sustained ties with African liberation movements and governments during and after the Cold War — connections that continue to shape the country’s activities on the continent today. He shares how his interest in the topic began with a […]

NK News Correspondent Jooheon Kim joins the podcast this week to discuss Ahn Hak-sop, a 95-year-old former North Korean soldier and so-called unconverted prisoner of war who is seeking repatriation to the DPRK after decades in the South. He also talks about the controversy surrounding ROK police investigations into defector remittances to relatives in the […]

On today’s episode, Kornel Chang discusses his new book “A Fractured Liberation: Korea Under U.S. Occupation,” which sheds light on the period from 1945 to 1950 when the country was divided into the North and South. Chang describes how the immediate post-liberation “opening” was more fluid than commonly portrayed, with ordinary Koreans pursuing varied aspirations […]