North Korea

What is Happening in North Korea?

There is little solid information but a lot of speculation on the status of Kim Jong Un and North Korea's recent past and immediate future. 

South Korea Confident That Rumors of Kim Jong-un Illness Are Wrong

Normally, South Korean officials maintain a neither-confirm-nor-deny policy, at least on the record, for fear of disturbing sensitive relations between the two Koreas.

Is the Talk about Kim Jong Un Being Sick — or Worse — True? Pyongyang is Abuzz, Too.

by Anna Fifield

The Washington Post Beijing Bureau Chief and Kim Jong Un biographer Anna Fifield dissects the swirling rumors around the North Korean leader's health and whereabouts.

Fake Citations Kill Historian's Career

Charles Armstrong, Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences at Columbia University, plagiarized parts of his award-winning book on North Korea.

Why the Second Summit Between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un Failed

by Benjamin R. Young

Despite more than sixty years since the armistice declaring the end of the Korean War, the U.S and North Korea seemed closer to peace than ever before.

North Korea’s Nukes and the ‘Forgotten War’

Hampton Sides, author of a new book about a turning point in the Korea war, explores the state of the Koreas and Trump’s forthcoming visit.

'The Dictator's Playbook' looks at history, with an eye on today

The PBS documentary series provides modern-day resonance -- a guide to tyrants of the past, conveying lessons on how those tactics can be employed in the present.

Hailed as a Hero, Executed as a Spy, and Exonerated Decades Later

Nearly a half-century after Lee Soo-keun’s execution, a court in Seoul absolved him of espionage, ruling that he had been wrongfully executed based on fabricated charges and a confession obtained through torture.

RIP to the Liberal Order

by Suzy Kim

American Mourning after the US-North Korea June Summit

For the U.S., a frustrating history of recovering human remains in North Korea

The up-and-down nature of past efforts suggests the process could be fraught with pitfalls, including a mixed record of cooperation from the North Koreans.

Philip Zelikow says step-by-step diplomacy in Korea has failed, so it’s time to try something new

He should know. He was involved in the step-by-step talks under Bush.

Trump’s Getting Us Ready to Fight a Nuclear War

by Lawrence Wittner

Even as he holds out the hope of denuclearizing North Korea, he wants to increase the size and scope of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Trump-Kim Deal Promises Answers for Families of Korean War M.I.A.s

The two sides agreed to the same thing after the 1953 armistice but have made only sporadic progress to accomplish it since then, and almost none in the last 13 years of mounting tensions over the North’s nuclear program.

Trump retreats from US moral leadership stance

Though Trump is far from the first U.S. president to work with an unsavory counterpart to achieve a strategic goal, his decision to broadcast that he tacitly accepts Kim’s history of atrocities was a sharp break from the past, says the AP.

Trump is everything Republicans said Obama was

by Tom Nichols

They called Obama an inexperienced, self-serving celebrity. Then their party chose Trump.

Will Trump Be Nixon in China?

by Andrew Preston

The president's meeting with Kim Jong Un could go more like Eisenhower with Khrushchev—which wouldn't be good.

When Hitler met Hoover

Dictators have scored presidential face time before.

Misunderestimating North Korea

by Andrew Meyer

North Korea doesn't want what Trump is offering.

As Trump Preps for Singapore, a Look at Past Summits That Succeeded—or Flopped

The bad ones include Yalta and Vienna.

Beijing sees 2018 as watershed year reminiscent of 1989

Both years are critical to understanding North Korea’s decision to develop nuclear weapons.