Edward Howell is a politics lecturer at Oxford. He was involved in launching the BBC World Service in North Korea.
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If there’s one thing that the ongoing Iran-US conflict is teaching North Korea, it is that nuclear weapons are an invaluable asset in the hermit kingdom’s toolbox. Nearly twenty years ago, Pyongyang conducted its first and far-from-successful nuclear test. Its capabilities have increased substantially since that moment and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, that
North Korea’s ninth party congress, held this week, was little more than a rubber-stamping exercise. That much was clear when the Chinese premier Xi Jinping congratulated Kim Jong-un on his re-election as the general secretary of the Workers’ party of Korea. But we would be wrong to dismiss this gathering as merely symbolic. The last
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South Korean presidents have gained infamy for meeting untimely fates, whether death, imprisonment or suicide. And now, former president Yoon Suk-yeol is the latest addition to this list. Earlier today, the man whose presidency will go down in history for his abortive declaration of martial law on 3 December 2024 was sentenced to life in
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Every authoritarian regime, particularly a dynastic one, at some point has to face the question of succession. North Korea is no exception. And it appears that the Kim regime, now in its third generation under Kim Jong Un, is planning for the future. This week, South Korea’s spy agency confirmed that Kim Jong Un’s teenage
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For a moment, it looked as if this tragic inevitability would not happen. But yesterday evening, Donald Trump gave the green light for Sir Keir Starmer’s disastrous Chagos Islands deal following ‘productive discussions’ between the two leaders. As a result, the UK has moved one step closer to realising its greatest strategic blunder in history.
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If one is in any doubt as to Great Britain’s decline and fall, look no further than 20 January, when we alienated ourselves from our once-held global status and from our allies and partners. Donald Trump took to social media that morning to declare that Britain’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius
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Think of the death penalty and North Korea’s executions of individuals convicted of so-called ‘anti-state crimes’ may spring to mind. The resilient democracy of South Korea, however, probably would not. Nevertheless, this week has seen South Korean prosecutors call for the country’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to be handed the most extreme of all
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As Kim Jong-un himself announced at a New Year’s Eve event in Pyongyang, 2025 was an ‘unforgettable year’ for North Korea. During the final weekend of the year, the Supreme Leader supervised a ‘nuclear-capable’ long-range strategic cruise missile test, which he termed an ‘exercise of war deterrence’ against the ‘security threats’ facing Pyongyang. The test
For Pyongyang, any opportunity to expound its anti-American worldview is worth taking
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The regime of North Korea has continued to exploit the war in Ukraine to spread its propaganda. This week we learnt that Ukrainian children, abducted by Russia, are being sent to an infamous North Korean summer camp. The children have reportedly been taught to ‘destroy Japanese imperialists’ and heard from North Korean soldiers who destroyed
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It was only a matter of time before Japan’s Iron Lady would be targeted by China. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi mentioned how Tokyo might resort to force were Beijing to take military action over Taiwan: ‘If there are battleships and the use of force, no matter how you think about it, it could constitute a
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It is rare to see Xi Jinping burst into laughter. But something must have tickled China’s Paramount Leader when he met South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea. The summit will largely be remembered this year for Donald Trump’s tête-à-têtes with East Asian
Trump has set off on a tour of Asia to meet regional leaders
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North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, once again declared earlier this wek that he would only welcome peace talks with the United States if Washington dropped its ‘denuclearisation obsession’. Responding several hours later, South Korean president Lee Jae-myung stressed that Seoul would accept a deal between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump in which Pyongyang agreed to
Special operators sought to intercept communications of the North Korean leader
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When analysing authoritarian states, not least North Korea, most of the time we have to read between the lines. But on other occasions, things are more obvious. Today, China celebrates eighty years since its victory over Japan in the second world war. Xi Jinping has invited Western and non-Western leaders past and present, but all
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Hours after his first bilateral meeting with Donald Trump earlier this week, the South Korean President Lee Jae-myung admitted that he feared that his one-to-one would become a ‘Zelensky moment’. Although the reality was far from the case, it made for somewhat vomit-inducing listening. As Lee showered Trump with praise for his handling of North
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When dealing with rogue states, being pessimistic often means being realistic. The much-anticipated summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin last week allowed the Russian leader to relish the bright Alaskan lights of summitry with Trump, buy the precious commodity of time, all while maintaining his ambition to defeat Ukraine. Amidst this week’s numerous meetings
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When Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet in Alaska today, it will mark their first encounter since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Although the talks are likely to be dominated by questions of a ceasefire, possible division of territory, and how the three-year war will conclude, North Korea will likely be more
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On both sides of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, loudspeakers blasting news, music, weather reports, wailing sounds, or anti-DPRK messaging have formed a regular part of life along one of the world’s most militarised borders. Yet the South Korean government’s decision to remove these loudspeakers, which commenced on Monday, sets a
