Glyn Ford   It is time to come to terms with the fact that the world is in denial about the realities behind Pyongyang’s drive for nuclear deterrence. Its Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Programme (ICBM) and its compendium of nuclear tests are a demonstration of weakness, not strength; an answer to paucity rather than plenty. The image of […]

Mikyoung Kim (Former Associate Professor, Hiroshima City University of Japan) Japan’s unusual ‘no-show’ in Washington DC The U.S., which has not directly intervened in so-called “history issues” between Korea and Japan, had to witness and deal with Korea-Japan diplomatic tensions in Washington last November. It happened during the Korea-U.S.-Japan Vice Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held on […]

Martin Weiser On February 16, South Korean lawmakers were briefed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) that recently Kim Jong Un’s state title was changed from “Chairman of the State Affairs Commission” (SAC) in English translations to “President of the State Affairs of the DPRK.” Journalists then rushed to turn this into news. But instead […]

Dr Robert Winstanley-Chesters 2020 was a difficult year for global mobilities, however seemingly uncontrolled mobile energies were at play at sea. A particularly widely spread academic article from July 2020 focused on Chinese “Dark Fleets” of fishing boats, which had come to dominate many of the fishing grounds once important to North Korea, whose own […]

Dr. Michael Schluter and Dr. Jeremy Ive The underlying issues and way forward This article is a brief introduction to Relational Peacebuilding Initiatives’ proposal for a new way forward for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Our starting point is that the problems of the Peninsula can only be resolved if trust is rebuilt between North […]

Dr. Jim Hoare* The election of Joe Biden as US president has once again brought the question of engaging with the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – North Korea) to the fore. It is doubtful, of course, that the DPRK will be very high on Biden’s list of urgent tasks but sooner or later […]