The Korea File

John Carl Baker, a fellow with Washington, DC think tank The Ploughshares Fund joins host Andre Goulet to talk about peace, nuclear proliferation and this historic week on the Korean peninsula.

This conversation was recorded on May 2nd, 2018.

Music on this episode, 'But I Like You' is from Busan indie rock band Say Sue Me. Find their new album 'Where We Were Together' on Bandcamp.

Mastered by Chris Hernandez at Studio Petite Palais in Montreal.

Jenny Town (Assistant Director of the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies/Managing Editor at 38North.org) joins host Andre Goulet to discuss Washington's reaction to the surprise announcement of a Donald Trump/Kim Jong-un summit and- what can we expect from this month’s upcoming inter-Korean talks? How do the conditions surrounding the summit compare to the Roh Moo-hun/Kim Jong-il meeting of 2007?

Plus: John Bolton as White House National Security Adviser adds a dangerous element to peace-making efforts on the peninsula and- why is Seoul still without an American ambassador? All this and more on episode 73 of The Korea File.

Music on this episode: 방주연's '당신의 마음' (1987)

This conversation was recorded on April 3rd, 2018

Mastered by Chris Hernandez at Studio Petit Palais in Montreal.

Steven Denney (Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto/Senior Editor at SinoNK.com) joins host Andre Goulet to discuss the diplomatic delegation's visit to Pyongyang and how Korean nationalism and American obstructionism continue to clash in the wake of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Plus: January's weird Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula, organized by the Canadian government and the U.S. State Department, comes under observation. All this and more, on episode 72 of The Korea File.

Music on this episode: ‘그리움만 쌓이네' by여진 (1979)

This conversation was recorded on March 9th, 2018.

Mastered by Chris Hernandez at Studio Petit Palais.

Steven Denney (Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto/Senior Editor at SinoNK.com) joins host Andre Goulet to discuss the diplomatic delegation's visit to Pyeongyang and how Korean nationalism and American obstructionism continue to clash in the wake of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Plus: January's weird Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula, organized by the Canadian government and the U.S. State Department, comes under observation. All this and more, on episode 72 of The Korea File.

Music on this episode: ‘그리움만 쌓이네' by여진 (1979)

In this conversation with prominent blogger Ask A Korean, we unpack the spy-ops and psy-ops that have informed more than a decade of alt-Right agitation in South Korea.

Plus: a look into the anti-democratic overreach of the National Intelligence Service and a deep dive into the origins of Ilbe, Korea’s nihilistic proto-Reddit web forum and 4chan and Breitbart predecessor. And, an analysis of the diminished status of South Korea’s political right-wing today.

Also, three fundamental questions that establish first principles when talking about North Korea: May the North Korean state continue to exist? May the Kim Jong-un regime remain in power? And is war acceptable on the Korean peninsula? Ask A Korean’s answer to all three questions is an emphatic ‘No’.

This conversation was recorded on January 28th, 2018.

Music on this episode is 심수봉 with '그때 그사람'.

Mastered by Chris Hernandez at Villeray Studios in Montreal.

Help support and sustain this podcast at patreon.com/thekoreafile and receive access to exclusive interviews and bonus content!

As the Koreas begin high level diplomatic talks, host Andre Goulet is joined by photojournalist Jules Tomi for a wide-ranging conversation on the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympic Games and the confluence of factors, including chaotic American political leadership, that may be leading to an easing of tensions on the peninsula.

Plus: critiquing voyeuristic journalism, apocalyptic diplomacy by Twitter and debating the perilous potential of possible reunification. This conversation was recorded on January 4th.

Music on this episode is Kim Gwan-suk's ‘Buchiji Anheun Pyunji #1 (Geudae Jal-gala)'

Photo credit: Spencer Cameron w/ Getty Images

Support The Korea File podcast at patreon.com/thekoreafile

Academics have long examined the relationship between nation-states and their "internal others," like immigrants and ethnic or racial minorities.

Now, with her award-winning book ‘Contested Embrace: Transborder Membership Politics in Twentieth-Century Korea’ Jaeeun Kim shifts this focus to look at how a state relates to people it sees as diasporic "external members".

In this conversation, Kim shares some of the ideas behind her comparative, historical, and ethnographic study of the complex relationships between the states in the Korean peninsula, colonial-era Korean migrants to Japan and northeast China and their descendants, and the states in which they’ve lived over the course of the twentieth century.

To see Jaeun Kim’s full Nam Center lecture, look for ‘Contested Embrace: Transborder Membership Politics in Twentieth-Century Korea’,on Youtube. Subscribe to the Nam Center’s Youtube channel at 'umichncks'.

Become a financial supporter of this podcast at patreon.com/thekoreafile

For more information on this lecture go to
https://www.ii.umich.edu/ncks/news-events/events.detail.html/42278-9593311.html

Mastered at Villeray Studios by Chris Hernandez.

On this episode:

The Nation magazine’s resident Korea expert Tim Shorrock discusses American political instability, assesses the unthinkable cost of a new Korean civil war and examines the international community's role in resolving the nuclear crisis.

Become a sustaining patron of this podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thekoreafile

Music on this episode includes the national anthems of the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

How do we consume nationalism in the marketplace? And what does it mean to treat nationalism as a commodity?

In this conversation, Nam Center Postdoctoral Fellow Jiun Bang discusses the commodification surrounding the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute, and challenges some of the traditional assumptions behind our perceptions of nationalism. 

And- a conversation on the strange linguistic character of the name Ehwa Womans University. Bang shares some little known facts about her alma mater. All this and more on episode 67 of The Korea File.

This episode was produced in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies.

Music on this episode:
John Lopker's 'My Dear Dokdo' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTSMNaFB8Rk and also
Kim Kyung-min's 'Dokdo, dokdo, dokdo' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT3NcD5162s

Choson Exchange is bringing capitalism to the DPRK.

Since 2009, the Singapore-based non-profit has facilitated training workshops for everyday North Koreans in Economics, Entrepreneurship and Urban Planning in metropolitan Pyongyang and elsewhere around the country.

In this conversation, Choson Exchange Associate Director of Research Dr. Andray Abrahamian discusses how the introduction of some aspects of a free market economy under the Kim Jong-eun regime is changing the way North Koreans look at capitalism. We’ll also talk about the prospects for further change in North Korean society and discuss how initiatives like Chosun Exchange could impact how the United States, South Korea and other countries approach North Korea policy.

Also: how can political leadership in the United States and the Koreas move past saber-rattling and militaristic rhetoric? How will South Korean policy towards the North change in the post-Park Geun-hye era? And what's it like to fly Air Koryo?

Music on this episode is 'Great Comrade Kim Jong-eun, We Know Nobody But You' from KCTV State Television:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLbWjwIwKrI

This episode was produced in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies.

To see Andray Abrahamian’s full Nam Center Undergraduate Fellows lecture, look for “Social Changes You See When Working in North Korea” on Youtube. Subscribe to Nam Center lecture series at 'umichncks'.