This site has been around in one form or the other since 2000, and as a blog since 2005. Since there haven’t been many posts in the last year, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon, and for a few o...
That’s some snow, eh? Nearly 3 feet as of last weekend and more arriving tonight and tomorrow. DC and Northern Virginia are pretty much shut down. I don’t think I will be using my deck an...
Today I attended the funeral for Kevin Kim’s mother, in Alexandria, Virginia. I’ve been to many funerals and, as they go, this one went extremely well. Sad at her loss, but celebrating he...
Joseph Bermudez, author of several books on North Korea’s military and intelligence services, has launched a new journal focusing on the Korea People’s Army (KPA), KPA Journal. It will be...
First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Richardson and to the readers of the blog. My wife and I recently received a Christmas gift of sorts from my wife’s, shall we say, less than ...
The Firearms Blog reports that the ROK Army unit being deployed to Afghanistan will be armed with the K11 airburst assault rifle (follow the link for more information including picture and video of t...
The last time the North and South Korean navies clashed seriously in 2002, the latter came off badly. The ROK Navy seems to have been better prepared this time: According to South Korean officials, f...
The lack of recent posts will continue for an unknown period of time as I’ve been busy at work, and engaged in other projects at home. I do plan on resuming daily posting at some unknown point in the...
My apologies to Richardson and the readers of this blog for months of silence (I will write an explanation at some point). But here is some good news from South Korea if you are a gun nut like I am: ...
After missile and nuclear tests and uranium enrichment, the U.S. sanctions North Korean firms while Pyongyang reverses, making overtures. It’s not an accident, it’s a pattern of strategic disengageme...
The Clan Records: Five Stories of Korea. Kajiyama Toshiyuki. University of Hawaii Press, 1995 (translated). The Clan Records is a collection of five short stories by a Japanese author who was born in...
Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) programs don’t pop-up overnight, especially in third-world backwaters like North Korea. Yet North Korea has announced via state-run media that it is capable of the “fina...
Erik van Ingen Schenau of the China Motor Vehicle Documentation Centre has posted a collection of photos of vehicles manufactured in North Korea. A larger variety than I realized, and more than a few...
Former President Kim Dae-jung (김대중) died today at age 83 (85 by Korean reckoning) of complications related to pneumonia. Kim was the Republic of Korea present from 1998 to 2003. Although Kim had a lo...
Theorized about for a long time, now in the news: “Currently there are eight companies in Seoul alone that provide services matching North Korean women with South Korean men. Two of them opened...
Vanity Fair, of all publications, has a lengthy article on North Korea’s counterfeiting operations, including Office 39. Well worth a read. (h/t NE Asia Matters)
Update, 19 August: Per Yonhap: South Korea suspended Wednesday the launch of its first space rocket with just under eight minutes remaining in the countdown due to a technical glitch. Original post: ...
The Chosun Ilbo has an article about a new book by Chang Jin-song (formerly affiliated with the North Korean Workers’ Party) that details Kim Jong-il private life, including the inside scoop on...
Earlier this week former U.S. president Bill Clinton went to North Korea to obtain the release of two American journalists who foolishly strayed into that country five months earlier and became pawns...
Gizmodo has an excellent array of Kim Jong-il photos; In Which We Provoke Kim Jong Il in 77 Offensive and Hilarious Ways. Some are sure to become often used classics.
I’ve been very busy with work, family, and reserves the past few weeks. The pace is not expected to let up any time soon, but as there are lulls I’ll post updates.
Several factors – all driven by Pyongyang – are at work and have created an increasingly tense military situation on the peninsula. Additional long-range missile tests are expected, and naval clashes...
That someone in the administration recognizes the absurdity of engaging in Ground Hog Day deals with North Korea (and is publicly commenting about it) is somewhat encouraging. Robert Gates, U.S. Secr...
ROK Drop: US Says It Can Intercept North Korean Missile NK Econ Watch: North Korea’s social change, and; DPRK not about to collapse DPRK Forum: Countdown to the Showtrial in the DPRK EagleSpeak...
Curtis Melvin, of the North Korean Economy Watch blog and North Korea Uncovered (Google Earth), recently did an interview on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC, and is featured in a Times Online article...
Missed it on the 30th as I was working late, but it’s now been four years since DPRK Studies has been in blog format.
The importance of the three short-range missiles launched by North Korea on Monday and the two follow-on launches Tuesday is being overstated in the press and by some politicians; this week is not ab...
From the Japan Times: “Yasushi Chimura and his wife, Fukie, abducted by North Korea in 1978 but repatriated in 2002, expressed relief Friday that their children [now ages 27, 25, and 21] are ad...
The title assumes North Korea did test a nuclear device, which I think likely, and not an equivalent amount of TNT, initially thought a possibility in 2006 until radioactive isotopes of krypton and x...
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