North Korea
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'One Nation' Dream: Do Younger South Koreans Want Reunification?
Olympic reconciliation, ongoing North Korea-U.S. hostility, yesterday a South Korean delegation to Pyongyang…. As usual, the Korean Peninsula is keeping observers on their toes. Amid all the intrigue, it’s easy to overlook the 50 million Koreans south of the demilitarized zone. How do they perceive North
Cultural Relic or Comeback Cat? In Search of the Korean Tiger
Soaring over stadiums, strutting around in opening ceremonies, masquerading as a soft toy and featured on a thousand pieces of merchandise — meet Soohorang, white tiger and official mascot of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Cute, furry and gender-neutral, Soohorang is the kind of well-bred animal that would carry your granny’
Pyeongchang Olympics' Funniest Moments: There's A Lot of Curling
There was that time a guy from Australia impersonated Kim Jong-un in front of North Korean cheerleaders. Or when P.F. Chang’s — not Pyeongchang — got massive, unintended publicity on an American TV station. Then there is an entire ecosystem of funny South Korean memes
Pyeongchang Olympics: What to Make of North Korea’s Switching Tactics
Editor’s Note: For better or worse, the Pyeongchang Olympics has become famous as much for politics as for sports since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to send a delegation at the last minute. The question of what this all means is not easy to answer. The
What is North Korea Saying About the Olympics?
South Korea’s news outlets have had plenty to write about in the last few days. On top of the drama of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, North Korea’s last-minute decision to send a delegation, including none other than Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong, has led to a flurry
This Foul-Mouthed 20-Year-Old is Changing South Korea's Millennial Media
Guk Beom-geun has a message for you, and he’s happy to phrase it in the bluntest possible terms. In a video, while digging in to a bowl of spicy ramen, he addressed the question on everyone’s lips, “What the Fuck is North Korea’s Problem?” “North Korea’s
Why Are South Korea and North Korea Enemies?
The first thing that needs to be addressed is, are South and North Korea enemies? My short answer would be yes and no: They are frenemies in a love-hate relationship — a result of a complicated history of division that originates in the Cold War. To get into the details,
Why Are South Koreans "Meh" About North Korea in the Olympics?
#Olympics: Why are some South Koreans “meh” about North Korea’s presence? Sports diplomacy? Symbolic peace gestures? Sure, it’s not the first time North and South Korea have done all this. But remember, the last time the two even communicated was in February 2016. At
South Korea’s Looming Choice
Following Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address, most of the media and analytical focus tended to revolve around his “nuclear button,” his statement that North Korea would begin “mass production” of nuclear weapons, or more hopefully, his surprising outreach toward the South Korean government of Moon Jae-in, which has
N. Korea's Olympics Proposal Undermines U.S. Hawks
At a scholarly conference on international politics and security I attended early December in the U.S., many an opinion was proffered on the state of geopolitics in Northeast Asia. But one dominant view, expressed at least privately by a number of scholars, was that the Donald Trump administration is
Is North Korean Different From South Korean?
How different is the language of North Korea from that of South Korea? Are there syntactic and grammatical differences due to the isolation of North Korea? In 2004, North and South Korea made a historic agreement to compile a “grand dictionary of the national language” (Gyeoremal-keunsajeon). Historically hostile relations between
Why Does China Hate THAAD So Much?
THAAD is a useful acronym to know if you’re interested in the geopolitical tensions in East Asia. The deployment of the U.S.’s Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea caused a sudden transformation of Korea’s relationship with China, its neighbor and number one