North Korea News Podcast by NK News
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North Korea News Podcast by NK News
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 po...
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341 дугаарYong Ja Hong: How sports and athletics play into North Korean statecraft
Yong Ja Hong, a PhD candidate studying North Korean society, culture and media at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, joins the podcast t...
New Year’s in North Korea and a ‘nuclear’ submarine on Christmas Day
This week, Korea Risk Group Executive Director Jeongmin Kim kicks off the podcast by discussing North Korea’s upcoming plans for New Year’s Day, inclu...
Year-end special: A look back at the most compelling North Korea stories of 2025
2025 was packed with news from the Korean Peninsula: new presidents assumed office in South Korea and the United States, North Korea expanded its coop...
UN condemns North Korean abuses, POWs in the DPRK and inter-Korean tourism
This week’s podcast starts by discussing the U.N. General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights abuses for the 21s...
Gabe Segoine: How ‘surfing diplomacy’ made waves in North Korea
Gabe Segoine, the founder of the first surfing program in North Korea and the Christian nongovernmental organization Love North Korea Ministries, join...
A North Korean’s murder in St. Petersburg, and a homecoming for DPRK troops
This week’s podcast kicks off with the 2003 murder case of a North Korean man in St. Petersburg, previously known as the “criminal capital” of Russia,...
Jane Hardy: An Australian diplomat’s lessons from 30 years with North Korea
Former Australian diplomat Jane Hardy joins this episode to discuss how Australia has engaged with North Korea over the past few decades, and what tha...
Death of Russian ambassador to DPRK, forgotten detainees and Halifax Forum
This week’s episode opens with the news of the sudden death of Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, who died at 70 on Saturday fol...
Joëlle Hivonnet: How the North Korean threat came knocking on the EU’s door
This week, Dr. Joëlle Hivonnet joins the podcast to discuss her four-year tenure as the EU’s deputy head in Seoul from 2016, a tumultuous era in inter...
DMZ construction, plans to flood the border and North Korea’s air force showcase
This week, NK News senior analytic correspondent Colin Zwirko joins the podcast to discuss recent developments along the inter-Korean border, as well...
Lonnie Edge: How North Korea fosters legitimacy during times of crisis
This week, Lonnie Edge of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies joins the podcast to discuss North Korea’s strategies for portraying itself as a legiti...
Seoul floats scaling back US-ROK drills, and proposes talks with North Korea
This week, NK News correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to recap a week’s worth of news from Seoul and Pyongyang, starting with South Korean P...
Elizabeth Campbell: Behind the scenes of North Korea’s Hollywood dreams
Dr. Elizabeth Campbell, a visiting scholar at Korea University’s Research Institute of Korean Studies, joins the podcast to discuss all things North K...
Russian firms in Pyongyang, North Koreans in Kursk and a prize for Kim Jong Un
This week, NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin joins the podcast to discuss Russian participation in North Korea’s fall trade fair and the latest...
How Seoul and Kyiv can join forces to counter North Korea-Russia military ties
This week, a former Ukrainian lawmaker and a Ukrainian military official join the podcast to discuss North Korea’s support of Russian forces, and why...
Death of a North Korean official, and the mystery around Pyongyang Papers
This week, NK News founder Chad O’Carroll joins the podcast to discuss the life of Kim Yong Nam, the longtime No. 2 in North Korea’s leadership who di...
Maarten Jongsma: Growing potatoes, and partnerships, in North Korea
Maarten Jongsma, a senior researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, joins the podcast to discuss his years of collaboration with North K...
How North Korea impacted the APEC summit from afar
This week, three members of the NK News team unpack their time at the APEC summit in Gyeongju and discuss how North Korea featured in the week’s diplo...
Bong-Seung Shin: How a South Korean journalist reported from inside the North
In this episode, veteran KBS journalist Bong Seung Shin shares his experience reporting from North Korea and communicating with journalists on the gro...
US-North Korea summit prospects, a new envoy in Seoul and Kim’s cemetery visit
NK News founder Chad O’Carroll joins the podcast this week to unpack the busy week ahead on the Korean Peninsula as APEC kicks off and U.S. President...
Remco Breuker: How North Korea built illicit networks that outlasted sanctions
This week, historian Remco Breuker explores how Pyongyang has built illicit networks that operate far beyond its borders to oversee labor exports, arr...
A North Korean soldier’s defection, and a possible Trump-Kim meeting
This week, NK News Correspondent Jooheon Kim joins the podcast to discuss the North Korean soldier who crossed the inter-Korean border over the weeken...
The forgotten postal link between North and South Korea
For a brief period after Korea’s liberation, a cross-peninsula postage system shuttled letters across the 38th parallel, linking the Soviet-led north...
Unpacking North Korea’s military parade, from foreign guests to new weapons
This week, Korea Risk Group Executive Director Jeongmin Kim and Senior Analytical Correspondent Colin Zwirko unpack North Korea’s military parade in P...
Chandana Seshadri: How North Korean IT workers exploit remote hiring systems
This week, Chandana Seshadri joins the podcast to discuss her RUSI Journal article, “How DPRK IT Workers Exploit Identity Management Vulnerabilities,”...
North Korea’s latest weapons expo, naval ambitions and Pyongyang hospital opens
NK News’ Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko unpacks the key developments ahead of North Korea’s Oct. 10 military parade marking the 80th anniv...
James Heenan: Inside the UN’s new human rights report on North Korea
James Heenan, the representative of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul, joins the podcast this week to unpack the High...
Lee Jae-myung’s ‘E.N.D.’ game, two states debate and North Korea-China talks
NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to discuss President Lee Jae-myung’s first speech to the U.N. General Assembly and his debut of a...
Vipin Narang: Why Seoul doesn’t need its own nukes to counter North Korea
This week, Dr. Vipin Narang joins the NK News podcast to unpack how the U.S. and South Korea are seeking to strengthen extended deterrence against Nor...
Loyalty relays for Kim Jong Un, and North Korea’s terms for talks with the US
This episode of the NK News podcast unpacks the unusual loyalty relays taking place across North Korea, where both children and adults carry letters p...
Stephen Mercado: How Japan crafted secret weapons to counter North Korea
This week, Stephen Mercado returns to the NK News Podcast to discuss his new book, “Japanese Spy Gear and Special Weapons,” and how Japan’s secretive...
Blaming Russian for North Korean deaths, 100 days of Lee Jae-myung and drills
This week, NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to discuss newly revealed DPRK state media footage that appears to blame Russia for No...
Mark Sauter: What to make of the reported US Navy SEAL mission into North Korea
This week, the NK News podcast explores the New York Times’ recent revelations about a 2019 U.S. Navy SEAL mission on North Korea’s coast. The operati...
North Korea’s engine test, Kim Jong Un’s Beijing diplomacy and trade fair plans
This week, NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko joins the podcast to discuss North Korea’s “static firing test of a high-thrust solid-fu...
The optics of Kim Jong Un’s appearance at China’s military parade
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his appearance at a large-scale multilateral event on Wednesday, standing shoulder to shoulder with Xi Jinping an...
Go Myong-hyun: US-ROK talks and North Korea’s diplomatic theater in Beijing
In this episode, Go Myong-hyun of Seoul’s Institute for National Security Strategy returns to the podcast to assess the recent summit between South Ko...
Joseph Torigian: How Xi Jinping’s father rebuilt China-North Korea ties
On this episode, scholar Joseph Torigian joins the podcast to discuss his new biography of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s father and Xi senior’s delicate...
The first Lee-Trump summit, and North Korea’s commemoration of war dead
In this week’s episode, NK News Deputy Managing Editor Alannah Hill breaks down President Lee Jae-myung’s first summit with U.S. President Donald Trum...
Tycho van der Hoog: North Korea’s forgotten allies in Africa
In this episode, Tycho van der Hoog joins the podcast to explore how North Korea forged and sustained ties with African liberation movements and gover...
An ex-North Korean soldier’s bid for repatriation, and controversial remittances
NK News Correspondent Jooheon Kim joins the podcast this week to discuss Ahn Hak-sop, a 95-year-old former North Korean soldier and so-called unconver...