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
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…
North Korea is playing a high-stakes game with a planned rocket launch this month.
EPA/KCNA South Korea
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…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s reign remains legitimate.
KCNA
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…
Julia Gillard needs to do more to impress in South Korea.
AAP/Adam Gartrell
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…
It’s impossible to separate North Korea’s defensive ambitions from its leadership transition.
EPA/KCNA South Korea
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…
North Korea’s isolation has seen it rely on criminal activity to earn foreign currency.
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…
A photograph dated 11 October 2010 depicting Kim Jong-il (right) and his putative heir Kim Jung-Un (left).
AAP/YNA
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…
Kim Jong-Il has died, leaving son Kim Jong-un in power.
Yonhap
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has died at the official age of 69 (it is believed he was 70). The nation’s “dear leader” was reported by state television to have died on a train trip yesterday morning…