The New Year always provides an opportunity for both introspection and speculation. So it seems a good time to consider what the big stories are likely to be this year. Some of the five major stories I…
Is it ever okay to depict the assassination of living person?
KCNA/Reuters
Sony’s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood’s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation…
That poster’s all you’re gonna get.
Justin Lane/EPA
Is The Interview a good movie? We may never know. After the theft by North Korean hackers of vast quantities of confidential emails, pay information and unreleased film scripts, the drip-drip leaking of…
The release of The Interview, an American comedy depicting the death of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, has been cancelled. A massive cyberattack on Sony, widely blamed on Pyongyang, and apparent threats against…
There have been some strange conflicts in history. The War of Jenkins Ear, which lasted from 1739 to 1748, resulted in the death of thousands. It started when Robert Jenkins, a merchant seaman, had his…
The scourge of Pyongyang? ICC chief proescutor Fasou Bensouda.
EPA/Peter de Jong
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has not showered itself in glory of late. Long beset by accusations of bias and ineffectiveness, and with cases looking shaky, the front line of international justice…
Did they get any Jennifer Lawrence pics?
EPA/Rodong Sinmun
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…
Protecting these guys from famine is in Kim Jong-Un’s interest.
Mike Connolly
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…
Does Aim High in Creation! create the conditions for active resistance to fracking in Australia?
Production still from Aim High in Creation!
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…
Koreas North (red) and South battle it out.
EPA/Jeon Heon-Kyun
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…
What’s worse than an enemy with a gun? An enemy with malicious code.
Niall Carson/PA Archive/Press Association Images
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…
Jang Song Taek, the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was summarily executed by the regime.
EPA/Rodong Sinmun
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…
Kim Jong-un’s threats against South Korea and the US have become more dramatic.
EPA/Yonhap News Agency
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…
Are moves to put North Korea’s military on its highest alert level just posturing by leader Kim Jong-un?
EPA/Rodong Sinmun
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…
The fallout from North Korea’s nuclear test will reach beyond its neighbours to the south.
AAP/Yonhap
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 Korean leader Kim Jong Un would find it hard to give up the nuclear program, even if he wanted to, experts said.
EPA/KCNA
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…
A visit to North Korea by Google chairman EricSchmidt and American ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson has raised diplomatic concerns.
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…