Kang Cheol Hwan, author of Aquariums of Pyongyang and Sejun Park former DPRK refugee working for the North Korea Strategy Center, a Seoul-based NGO, spoke to the topic of information access for North Koreans and current efforts to share information with the DPRK citizenry on human rights and democracy. North Korea and Information Access with Kang Cheol Hwan NKSC President and Author of 'Aquariums of Pyongyang' Sejun Park  CEO of North Korea Strategy Center… Read More

NEW YORK, August 25, 2015 – On 24 August the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) reached an agreement after three days of high-level negotiations to defuse tensions after Thursday’s rocket and artillery volley, which followed on August 4 landmine explosions south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The North expressed “regret” over the two South Korean soldiers maimed by the explosions, and South Korea… Read More

In 2011, Jean Lee became the first American reporter granted permission to work as a journalist in North Korea, and a year later opened AP's Pyongyang bureau, making the news agency the first and only U.S. news outlet with an office in the North Korean capital. Lee, who now serves as a Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., shares photos and videos of homes, factories, schools… Read More

  South Korean films continue to set box-office records across Asia and win laurels in international film festivals. Meanwhile, little attention is given to the cinema from the other half of the peninsula. From May 12 to 14, 2008, three films from the DPRK’s canon will be screened as a special presentation in the Classic Movie Night series. The films—Hong Gil Dong, Bellflower, and My Look in the Distant Future—have been rarely… Read More

Katharina Zellweger, former North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, discussed current research on the issue of people with disabilities in North Korean society. Ms. Zellweger, who first visited the DPRK over 20 years ago, worked in North Korea from 2006-2011 on humanitarian aid and development assistance. People with Disabilities in a Changing North Korea with Katharina Zellweger, former North Korea Country Director for the Swiss… Read More

Knowing North Korea is a multi-part, multi-year series, showcasing social science research and scholarly findings to better understand the complexities surrounding North Korea. The Korea Society has hosted analysts, academics, journalists, aid workers, and refugees discussing North Korea. Read More

Marking a year since the release of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) Report on North Korea, Dr. Victor Cha, Senior Advisor and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Director of Asian Studies, Georgetown University, speaks to the significance of the report and steps forward. Dr. Cha will be joined by Lindsay Lloyd, Program Director at the Bush Institute, in conversation with The… Read More

State of the Rebalance Thomas Hubbard, US State Department/Korea Society/McLarty AssociateMay 23,2014   President Obama’s recent trip to Asia was a timely, perhaps necessary, reminder that the “rebalance” to Asia remains an important pillar of US foreign policy despite the distraction of immediate crises elsewhere in the world. During an unusually lengthy eight-day trip, Obama visited three treaty allies—Japan, Korea, and the Philippines—and a long-neglected friend, Malaysia. Reacting to the… Read More

During Kim Jong-un’s rule, North Korea’s unrelenting deprivation of fundamental human rights has, if possible, gotten even worse. North Koreans seek to flee the regime ruled by political prisons, torture, hunger, and public execution, completely void of fundamental rights or an adequate standard of living. The UN Commission of Inquiry condemned Pyongyang for “systemic, widespread, and gross violations of human rights” of such a monumental scale as to constitute crimes… Read More

As part of the Korea Economic Institute of America's Ambassadors' Dialogue Series, American Ambassador Sung Kim and Republic of Korea Ambassador Ahn Ho-young address current Peninsular economic and security issues, as well as the state of U.S.-Korea relations. Ambassadors’ Dialogue: U.S.- Korea Relations Tuesday, May, 13, 2014 11:30 AM | Registration & Luncheon 12:15 PM | Discussion Join our membership program here! E-News sign-up May 13, 2014 - Ambassadors Ahn… Read More