North Korea News Podcast by NK News

NK News
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The NK News Podcast is a weekly program covering all things North Korea: Discussion on the latest news, extended interviews with leading specialists, and insight from our own staff. We welcome both generalist and specialist audiences interested in knowing more about the Korean Peninsula. The full podcast is available to NK News subscribers.Sign up today at NK News

  1. 5d ago

    Buried missile facilities, mystery telecom site and North Korea’s naval buildup

    Jeongmin Kim hosts this week’s NK News Podcast and is joined by Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko to discuss a series of recent satellite imagery investigations into North Korea’s military infrastructure, beginning with an unusual new facility at a factory producing short-range ballistic missiles supplied to Russia. Colin explains why North Korea built and then buried the structure, what its location may suggest about safety or security requirements and how recent missile activity could relate to Pyongyang’s evolving battlefield experience from the war in Ukraine. The conversation then turns to a large new complex beside Pyongyang’s international telecommunications station, where 17 circular structures could eventually support satellite dishes used for communications or monitoring foreign broadcasts. Later, he breaks down the severe flooding near a major military facility in Shingae before looking at renewed construction at a long-stalled naval base north of Wonsan, as North Korea builds larger warships without suitable facilities to host them. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

  2. Aug 5

    Jerome Sauvage on North Korea’s crises, contradictions and quiet moments

    Former U.N. official Jerome Sauvage joins this week’s podcast to discuss his new book, Witness to North Korea: Three Years on the Ground in the DPRK, which recounts his posting in Pyongyang from late 2009 to early 2013. He explains why he accepted one of the U.N.’s most difficult assignments and what it took to reopen the U.N. Development Programme office after its 2007 closure amid allegations over financial controls and sanctions evasion. The conversation explores North Korea’s failed 2009 currency redenomination, the gap between Pyongyang and the impoverished countryside and what census data, cooperative farms and the public distribution system revealed about chronic food insecurity and the growing importance of markets. Sauvage also reflects on living in North Korea during the sinking of the Cheonan warship and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, as well as attending Kim Jong Il’s official wake and observing the fear, grief and uncertainty surrounding Kim Jong Un’s rise to power. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

  3. Jul 29

    North Korean troops for Russia, a new Seoul strategy and the ‘Hero of Panmunjom’

    NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins this week’s podcast to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim that Russia has requested another 30,000 North Korean troops for its war against Ukraine. He explains how realistic a deployment of that size would be, why Russia may be preparing facilities in the Voronezh region and whether DPRK personnel are more likely to serve in logistics, reconstruction and rear-area security than in direct frontline combat. The conversation then turns to South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young’s declaration that Seoul is shifting from a “denuclearization first” approach to a “peace first” strategy. Joon Ha breaks down why experts view the announcement as a change in sequencing rather than a fundamental policy reversal, and why North Korea currently has little incentive to respond. In the second half of the episode, he looks back at the 1953 Korean War Armistice Agreement and explains why South Korea was not among its signatories, how the ceremonies at Panmunjom and Munsan unfolded and why Seoul’s absence still affects peace diplomacy today. He also recounts the remarkable life of Choe Tok Sin, the South Korean general known as the “Hero of Panmunjom” who later served as foreign minister, fell out with Park Chung-hee and defected to North Korea.  About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

  4. Jul 23

    Rudiger Frank on North Korea’s hidden middle class: North Korea Unpacked

    This month, Dr. Rüdiger Frank joins North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot to discuss how decades of marketization have transformed North Korea’s economy and society, and why old assumptions about engagement and pressure may no longer apply. He talks about the emergence of what he describes as a sizable North Korean middle class, how smartphones, private wealth and limited consumer choices point to deeper social change, and why leader Kim Jong Un may be a reluctant reformer forced to manage economic realities he did not create. He also explains why money is increasingly trapped inside North Korea, how projects like Wonsan-Kalma may be designed to absorb domestic spending and why Pyongyang could be moving toward something resembling a developmental dictatorship. Dr. Rüdiger Frank is professor of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna and one of Europe’s foremost experts on North Korea. He studied at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang from 1991-1992, and has spent decades researching North Korea’s political economy, economic transformation and international relations. About the podcast: North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot is a monthly long-form interview series from the NK News Podcast, featuring in-depth conversations with experts and specialists on North Korea. The regular weekly NK News Podcast, hosted by Alannah Hill, continues to cover the latest developments in the North Korea news cycle.

  5. Jul 22

    North Korea’s World Cup miracle and the town that kept the memory alive

    This week, the NK News Podcast presents a special episode on one of the most unlikely stories in World Cup history: North Korea’s extraordinary run at the 1966 tournament and the English town that embraced the team as its own. Sixty years after the DPRK stunned Italy and reached the quarterfinals, this episode revisits how a little-known team from a country Britain did not recognize became the emotional heart of Middlesbrough’s World Cup summer. Through archival sound, documentary clips and interviews with Nicholas Bonner, Daniel Gordon and Tosh Warwick, the episode traces North Korea’s road to England, the Cold War anxieties surrounding its arrival, the players’ meticulous preparation and the small human encounters that transformed suspicion into affection. This special episode is based on Shreyas Reddy’s two-part feature series for NK News, Part 1 of which can be found here, and Part 2, here.  Special thanks to Nicholas Bonner and Daniel Gordon for allowing us to use soundbites from “The Game of Their Lives” and to Joon Ha Park for providing the dubbed Korean soundbites. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

  6. Jul 15

    North Korea’s closer ties with China, Russia — and what Washington can do

    NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin joins this week’s podcast to discuss North Korea’s deepening ties with China and Russia, starting with Premier Pak Thae Song’s meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing during a visit marking the 65th anniversary of the China-DPRK alliance treaty. He also previews Wang Huning’s upcoming visit to Pyongyang and explains what these high-level exchanges suggest about where Beijing-Pyongyang ties stand. The conversation turns to Russia’s growing demand for North Korean labor, before breaking down a strange Russian court case involving a failed corn shipment to North Korea and how it exposed DPRK sanctions-evasion networks. In the second part of the episode, retired senior U.S. diplomat Susan Thornton discusses the “fire and fury” period of 2017, the Trump-Kim summit process and what lessons Washington should draw from that era of direct diplomacy with Pyongyang. She also delves into whether denuclearization remains a realistic goal, what interim steps the U.S. could pursue, how China and Russia are shaping North Korea’s strategic calculations and what a realistic policy success might look like in the years ahead. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

  7. Jul 8

    North Korea’s new destroyers, China border trade and Seoul’s coexistence dilemma

    NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko joins this week’s podcast to discuss North Korea’s naval modernization push, from Kim Jong Un’s latest cruise missile test from the Kang Kon destroyer to the recent commissioning of the Choe Hyon, the country’s first 5,000-ton warship to formally enter service. He also breaks down his latest NK Pro analysis on the apparent restart of makeshift smuggling routes across the North Korea-China border, including what satellite imagery shows, why private vehicles appear to be a major driver of the trade and what the activity suggests about China’s willingness to tolerate sanctions violations while maintaining plausible deniability. Afterward, Gabriela Bernal joins the podcast to discuss her analysis on South Korea’s shift toward “peaceful coexistence” with North Korea and what Seoul can learn from the Balkans.  She explains the concept of “functional coexistence,” why Serbia-Kosovo dialogue offers a useful but limited comparison and what role institutions like the U.N. Command, the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission and the Military Armistice Commission can play.  About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

  8. Jul 1

    Destroyer deployment, missile tests, drone warfare and North Korea’s near misses

    This week’s episode of the NK News Podcast looks at North Korea’s military modernization, from Kim Jong Un’s new 5,000-ton Choe Hyon destroyer to recent tactical missile and artillery tests. Korea Risk Group Correspondent Joon Ha Park discusses what the destroyer adds to Pyongyang’s navy, why its assignment to the West Sea Fleet matters and what South Korea’s delayed public confirmation of a Hwasong-11D launch reveals about missile disclosure policy. He also breaks down Seoul’s push to expand drone and counter-drone capabilities — including loitering munitions, laser and microwave defenses — and plans to train hundreds of thousands of “drone warriors.” Afterward, Dr. Fyodor Tertitskiy joins the podcast to discuss his new book, “Pyongyang on the Brink,” which explores 16 crises that could have changed North Korea’s history — and what they reveal about the survival, fragility and possible future of the Kim dynasty. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

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About

The NK News Podcast is a weekly program covering all things North Korea: Discussion on the latest news, extended interviews with leading specialists, and insight from our own staff. We welcome both generalist and specialist audiences interested in knowing more about the Korean Peninsula. The full podcast is available to NK News subscribers.Sign up today at NK News

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