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In a post from last summer, we argued that the military is occupying a larger role within party and state institutions. The events of the last six months—from the satellite launch and nuclear tests, to the particularly furious reaction to UNSC Resolution 2087 and the closing of Kaesong—appear to have military fingerprints on them. At [...]
Several weeks ago—on March 15 to be exact—we offered a “review of the bidding”: an analysis of three successive statements in the first half of March from the Supreme Command of the KPA (March 5), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (March 7) and the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (March 8). We also [...]
At a conference several weeks ago at MIT, I had the chance to talk to Steve Levitsky (Department of Government at Harvard) about his current work with Lucan Way (University of Toronto) on authoritarian cohesion and durability. Levitsky and Way are the co-authors of a great book on “competitive authoritarian” regimes: intermediate regimes that are [...]
Over the last several weeks, the North Koreans have issued three separate statements, all emanating from different parts of the state apparatus; they can be found on the KCNA website on the dates cited below. All are intended to show resolve, not only through words but through domestic political mobilization as well. The targets appear [...]
A central problem in dealing with North Korea is the low signal-to-noise ratio in Pyongyang’s policy pronouncements, a point made tellingly in an interesting academic piece by Vito D’Orazio we discussed around the time of the joint military exercises last year. (For those with journal access, the piece was subsequently published in the Journal of [...]
With the sequester looming, we were intrigued by a study done last year on American attitudes toward defense spending that recently got airplay on NPR. The Program for Public Consultation, in collaboration with the Stimson Center and the Center for Public Integrity, finds that attitudes toward defense spending are much more skeptical than they are [...]
Unable to afford Superbowl ad rates, North Korea went the El Cheapo route, uploading an internet ad for one of its traditional products, “Belligerence.” Or at least that’s what the “North Korea taunts US with weird video” headlines would lead you to believe, but what’s really going on here? First, of all the ad is [...]
We look closely at institutional developments in North Korea for signs of hope: that Kim Jong Un would shift his attention to bodies that would constrain his impulses for the grand gesture or represent a somewhat wider array of economic and social interests. Lost amidst the focus on the likely nuclear test is the ample [...]
If there is any doubt about the centrality of family politics in North Korea, the continuing rise of Jang Song Thaek—Kim Jong Il’s brother-in-law and thus Kim Jong Un’s uncle—should put them to rest. According to a typically-careful analysis by Michael Madden at North Korea Leadership Watch, Jang has apparently been appointed to the Politburo [...]
Teach a man to fish: Joongang Ilbo is reporting that “North Korea used construction equipment and materials from South Korea to aid with the latest launch of the ballistic rocket Unha-3.” The unnamed South Korean government source went on to claim that “The U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities spotted the North using cranes, forklifts [...]
