The recent cyber attack on Sony Pictures was so extensive there were notices placed on the entrance doors telling staff not to log in to the company’s network when they reached their desks. Sony’s entire…
After a month’s absence from public life, fuelling idle speculation about a possible coup, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has at last reappeared in public. Limping with a cane, in line with reports he…
When we think of North Korea, we think of a nation determined to be an outsider in the international community. Whether it’s testing nuclear weapons or threatening London hairdressers, the Democratic People’s…
The history of revolutionary cinema has been marked by a number of mercurial manifestos. Sergei Eisenstein, for example, believed in the brute potential of editing to activate the political senses. Fernando…
North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong-un has now been in power for more than two years. He has largely stuck to the ideological principles that his father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, had introduced…
South Korea has made a suprisingly public announcement that it plans to develop cyber-weapons for potential use against North Korea. The decision to make its plans known is baffling and the potential consequences…
The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) report into human rights abuses in North Korea, released on Monday by panel chairman Michael Kirby, highlights the impact of the government’s extreme…
The controversial visit to North Korea by Dennis Rodman has provoked much comment, most of it critical of the former NBA basketball player for lending the gloss of his stardom to a brutal dictatorship…
In a drama reminiscent of George RR Martin’s epic book A Game of Thrones, court politics at the pinnacle of the Kim dictatorship in North Korea have taken a brutal turn with the purge and execution of…
Western commentators seem generally mesmerised by North Korea’s quixotic behaviour. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is described as “delusional”, “fruitcake”, “reckless”, and the actions of North Korea’s…
The North Korean government announced yesterday via its Korean Central News Agency that it is placing its “strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units” on their highest alert status. The press…
Overnight North Korea conducted its third nuclear weapons test. The test came in the wake of a successful long-range rocket launch in December and resulting condemnation from the United Nations Security…
North Korea is suspected of conducting their biggest nuclear weapon test yet, after a 4.9 magnitude seismic reading was recorded in an area that is not prone to earthquakes. The North Korean regime is…
Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and American ambassador to the United Nations and Google chairman Eric Schmidt have recently arrived in North Korea on a well-publicised private mission to…
As the first anniversary of Great Leader Kim Jong Il’s death approaches, North Korea again stands poised to launch another rocket carrying its Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite into space. According to Korean…
The technical aspects of North Korea’s failed rocket launch last week are less interesting than the political undercurrents swirling around this event. Yesterday, the UN announced increased sanctions for…
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government. Here, Dr Craig Mark - currently based…
In March, North Korea’s external propaganda mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency announced the impending launch of a satellite, the Kwangmyongsong-3, during a four-day launch window timed to correspond…
The death of Kim Jong-il has refocused the world’s attention on the “Hermit Kingdom”, North Korea. This moniker is an apt description of its isolation from the international community – an isolation that…
Kim Jong-il, the mercurial “Dear Leader” of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), died of heart failure on 17 December 2011, at the age of 69. One could be excused for not believing in the…