Korean Kontext

This week, we delve into how Japan views the security threat from China, and how these perceptions shape Japanese policy. For this, we turn to security expert Dr. Narushige Michishita. Dr. Michishita is a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo and is currently a Japan scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. KEI recently commissioned a paper from him for our Academic Symposium program. The paper looked into how different sectors in Japan view the Chinese security threat, including politicians, the defense ministry, and the media. In this episode, we discuss his findings and Japan's view toward Chinese security intentions more broadly. We also discuss some of his other research on security and strategy in Northeast Asia.

Last week, North Korea launched its Seventh Worker's Party Congress, a major meeting of regime leaders that has not been convened in 36 years. Although analysts had high expectations for the meeting, there were few major announcements out of Pyongyang. What significance did the meeting have? What changes does it signal for the DPRK in the future? To answer some of these questions, this week Korean Kontext host Jenna Gibson sits down with Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation. They discuss some of the announcements that Kim Jong Un made at the Congress, some of the expected moves that he chose not to make, and why he may have chosen to wear that infamous striped suit.

In this episode, we take a step back from the Korean Peninsula and take a look at Northeast Asia from the perspective of one of its neighbors - Russia. In recent years, Russia has been pursuing a "Turn East" policy, hoping to get more involved in China and on both sides of the Korean Peninsula. But so far these attempts have had mixed success. Our guest this week is Alexander Gabuev, chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center. We discuss Russia's view towards China, its Turn to the East policy, and the role that Russia is trying to play in solving the North Korea issue.

On May 1, South Korean President Park Geun-hye will travel to Tehran, Iran for a summit meeting with her counterpart, President Hassan Rouhani. This visit will be the first time a South Korean and Iranian president have met for a bilateral summit since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1962. Our guest this week is Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who specializes in Iranian foreign and domestic policy. We discuss this historic event from the Iranian perspective, including what the meeting could mean for the two countries on both a practical and a symbolic level. For more information on South Korea's ties with Iran, check out KEI's new blog post on the subject.

In 2010, a group of Asian countries made major strides toward economic integration with the launch of the Chang Mai Initiative Multilateralization. This currency swap arrangement has had a major impact on economic cooperation and stability for the member countries. This week, guest host Kyle Ferrier, KEI's director of academic affairs and research, sits down with Dr. Kaewkamol (Karen) Pitakdumrongkit. Dr. Pitakdumrongkit, who is an assistant professor at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, examines the initiative from its origins to recent changes, and explores the role South Korea played as a mediator in the creation of this landmark agreement.

With the recent season finale of The Walking Dead and the broadcast of his visit to South Korea with talk show host Conan O'Brien this past weekend, we look back at our interview with Korean-American actor Steven Yeun. From the original broadcast: In this episode, Korean Kontext spoke to Korean-American actor Steven Yeun.  Having acted in several high profile TV shows, Yeun's interest in acting originated during his freshman year at Kalamazoo College after watching improv group "Monkapult".  Originally studying Psychology at Kalamazoo, Yeun's parents gave him two years to try acting and it didn't take long for him to win his first roles.  Fast-forward to 2010 and Yeun was cast as Glenn in the hugely popular The Walking Dead, a character that put him on millions of TV screens worldwide.Korean Kontext caught up with Steven over Skype for a chat about his career as a Korean American actor, current role in The Walking Dead, and future career aspirations.  Tune in for a fascinating conversation with Steven Yeun of The Walking Dead.

This week our guest is noted scholar and North Korea watcher Dr. Stephan Haggard. Dr. Haggard is a Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies and director of the Korea-Pacific Program at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California San Diego. He also co-authors the popular "North Korea: Witness to Transformation" blog at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. As an expert on North Korea and the North Korean economic situation, we were eager to talk with Dr. Haggard about a range of issues, including the rise of the black market economy, the economic effect of new sanctions, and even the possibility that Kim Jong Un will institute a new tax system in the DPRK. Dr. Haggard was recently here at KEI moderating a panel on this topic with researchers from China, Russia, and the United States. The video of the discussion can be found here.

At KEI, we mainly focus on the relationship between the United States and South Korea, and their approaches toward North Korea. This week, we're taking a different look at the Peninsula - through the European perspective. While the United States and Europe share a lot of common goals and policies toward both sides of the DMZ, there are some distinct differences in the way they approach Korea. And within Europe there are also a range of policies and approaches. This week, we connect with Dr. John Nilsson-Wright, head of the Asia Program at Chatham House and an official fellow of Darwin College at Cambridge University. We discuss some of the similarities and differences in how our friends across the pond view and interact with North and South Korea.

For understandable reasons, the international community has been focused on North Korea's nuclear program, concerned that Pyongyang could have a weapon capable of such massive destruction. But should they also be concerned about possible side effects from the nuclear tests themselves? Our guest this week is Dr. Eunseo Choi, an assistant professor at the University of Memphis' Center for Earthquake Research and Information. Dr. Choi was part of a team of scientists who recently published an article about the chance that North Korea's continued nuclear testing could trigger an eruption of Mt. Baekdu, an enormously powerful volcano on the border of the DPRK and China. Photo from Neil Young's photostream on flickr Creative Commons.

Last week, we looked at the details of the new US and UN sanctions against North Korea, delving into the new measures to get at Pyeongyang's funding. But will they actually work? To get at this issue, Korean Kontext host Jenna Gibson spoke with Dr. John Park, adjunct lecturer at Harvard and afaculty affiliate with the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. They discussed North Korea's recent provocations, how the international community has responded, and what North Korea has been doing to get around targeted sanctions.

On February 18, President Barack Obama signed into law a new round of sanctions designed to further squeeze the North Korean regime. On March 3, the United Nations Security Council followed suit, passing what many are calling the toughest sanctions in 20 years. Experts Bill Newcomb and Daniel Wertz join host Jenna Gibson to go through the details of these new measures. What makes them so tough? Will they compliment each other or will there be points of contention? Will they actually push the DPRK to change? 

Human rights in North Korea remains a divisive issue between the international community and North Korea. In 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council established Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to investigate human rights violations in North Korea. In this episode, host Jenna Gibson sits down with Justice Michael Kirby, who was appointed to head the Commission of Inquiry and a former Justice of the High Court of Australia. They discuss the Commission of Inquiry and of the current state of human rights in North Korea.

When Marja Vongerichten was 19, she met her birth mother for the first time since being adopted at age three. The first thing they bonded over, Marja says, was food. In this episode, we sit down with Marja, who is the host of the popular PBS show Kimchi Chronicles and author of a book by the same name. We discuss her background, how her love of food began, how that reconnection with her birth mother inspired her cooking, and much more.

Born in Brooklyn, Chef Edward Lee always loved cooking. And after graduating from college with an English literature degree, he returned to that love and became an award-winning chef. Not only does he own successful restaurants in Kentucky and Maryland, he has also been on several major TV shows including Iron Chef America, Top Chef and Mind of a Chef.In this episode, host Jenna Gibson sits down with Chef Lee to discuss his background, his move to the South, and his opinions on the use of the word "fusion."

In the decades following the Korean War, North Korea initiated a top-secret project to kidnap ordinary people from Japan, reeducate them, and turn them into international spies for the regime. In the late 1970s, dozens of Japanese disappeared without a trace from beaches, schools and sidewalks.In this episode, we feature Robert Boynton, author of the fascinating new book "The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project." Boynton spent years investigating the abduction project, interviewing the few abductees who were able to return to their homeland, and painting a picture of their lives in the North, where many were held prisoner for decades.