Is it wrong to travel to North Korea? Despite the warnings and all-out bans on traveling to the Hermit Kingdom, many in the world cannot pass up the allure of traveling there. Does travel to the North support the nuclear program? Will there be a minder watching your every move? Does North Korea stage "scenes" that make it look happier and wealthier than it actually is?

It's complicated.

Sug and Dan explore this nuanced topic.

Links:
Young Pioneers
Bike tour North Korea

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In this episode we overview the skirmishes that have occurred between North and South Korea while the Demilitarized Zone has been in existence. Spoiler alert: there have been a lot. From underground tunnels to axe murders to plots to assassinate the president, so much has happened in the DMZ. 

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The name of this show is a play on an actual place, the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas. This is a place of conflict,  natural beauty, tourism and fried chicken. Sug and Dan discuss the DMZ as a location that people can visit and experience on their own. They also discuss what the DMZ symbolizes to the Korean people and the world. 

Show links:
Steven Yeun on Conan O'Brien visit the JSA
Google's DMZ special report
North Korea soldier crossing
Tourists go to the other side of the DMZ
Trump walks into North Korea

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The topic of Comfort Women is a delicate topic both politically and emotionally. The term comes from Japanese colonialism and the country's practice of taking young girls from Korea and other conquered nations to the front lines of battle as sexual slaves to the Japanese army. Host Dan and Sug have a brief conversation exploring the topic and how it has impacts upon East-Asian geopolitics to this day.

This conversation was recorded on February 8, 2023.  

Before It's Too Late - An article exploring Professor Kim's studies on the topic of comfort women. 

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Reunification of the Korean peninsula is a complicated and technical conversation, which is why we brought Professor Minkyung Kim to talk about it.

Minkyung Kim is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and researches organizational communication and its impacts on community resilience and sustainability. Specifically, she studies organizations serving vulnerable populations and how they leverage and navigate communication processes like inter-organizational networks to maximize their capacity for community impact.

She grew up in South Korea and was trained as a child to spot North Korean spies. She also lived in West Germany at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her grandfather also grew up in the same town as Kim Il Sung.

Here's a BBC interview with her grandfather, Professor Kim Hyung-suk. 

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Songbun is your social, political and geographic credit score in North Korea and it is largely based on the merits of your ancestors when Kim Il Sung took power. Sug and Dan explore this weird and convoluted system that the North Korean government uses to subjugate and classify its citizens.

Links:
Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea's Social Classification System
Crossing Borders blog - Songbun: A North Korean's Ultimate Value

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Did you know that North Korea has its own animation studio that has worked on movies from around the world (even the US)? Hosts Dan Chung and Sug Shin discuss globalism and how French Canadian Guy Delisle ended up working in a North Korean animation studio, which he details in his book "Pyongyang: A journey in North Korea." The two hosts examine North Korea's most popular cartoon, "Squirrel and Hedgehog," a violent take on the battle between capitalism and communism featuring cute animated creatures. 

Article about SEK Studio. 

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Little is known about the early life and times of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. What is known are the scraps of evidence he left growing up, going to a Swiss school where he made friends and left an impression on his teachers. Hosts Sug Shin and Dan Chung retrace his footsteps and try to piece together a picture of what made Kim the Dear Leader he is today.

Links:
NY Post article
Anna Fifield's Book "The Great Successor"

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The Demystified Zone is back with their conversations about North Korea. This episode is about North Korea's military and, yes even nuclear capabilities. After decades of development, North Korea appears to be a nuclear state and very close to being able to strike the US with a nuclear warhead. Hosts Sug Shin and Dan Chung discuss North Korea's capabilities and weather it matters if North Korea has a nuclear weapon. The two hosts also review a video of North Korea's elite soldiers putting on a bizarre show of force to impress their great leader.  Video link here.

North Korea's Global Firepower Index
Council of Foreign Relations - North Korea's Military Capabilities

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 Hosts Sug Shin and Dan Chung close out the year by reviewing the stories that didn't quite make it to the podcast. Here's the list of stories: 

1. World Cup Fake News (2014)
2. Guinness World Record for tallest unoccupied building, the Ryugyong Hotel 1,079 ft
3. Kim Jong Un’s daughter revealed for the first time (Nov 2022)
4. You can only browse 28 websites
5. Human traffic lights
6. North Korea is home to the world’s largest stadium (150k people)
7. Underground tunnels to South Korea from NK
8. Human poop fertilizer
9. Kim Yo Jong
10. The pandemic and North Korea

The hosts finish out the year with a little North Korea trivia. Play along with us and, if you beat Dan, email [email protected] and we will send you a t-shirt. (Only for US addresses, sorry!)

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