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Jason Bartlett

Jason Bartlett

Jason Bartlett is a contributing author to The Diplomat and a research assistant in the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at CNAS. He tweets @jasonabartlett.

Jason Bartlett is a research assistant for the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). His research focuses on the intersections of sanctions policy and evasion tactics, counterproliferation finance, and cybercrime with regional focus on the Korean Peninsula. He also leads CNAS’ Sanctions by the Numbers series.

Jason holds an MA in Asian Studies from the School of Foreign Service and a Graduate Certificate in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies from Georgetown University, as well as a BS in Spanish and a BA in International Studies from SUNY Oneonta. He also graduated from the Korean Language Institute (KLI) at Yonsei University in South Korea. Jason is a member of the North Korea Cyber Working Group at Harvard’s Belfer Center.

Previously, Jason conducted national security-related research at several think tanks in Washington D.C. and Seoul and provided years of resettlement assistance to North Korean refugees in the United States and South Korea. He is fluent in Korean and proficient in Spanish.

Posts by Jason Bartlett
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November 15, 2021

Taiwan to Host 1st WorldPride in East Asia: Why That’s Important

By Jason Bartlett
Kaohsiung beat out Washington D.C. to host WorldPride 2025.
November 12, 2021

Agent Chrysanthemum: North Korean Spy Indicted for Coercing Defectors to Return ‘Home’

By Jason Bartlett
Coercing, and even abducting, defectors is a common tactic for authoritarian regimes to discourage defection.

October 29, 2021

China’s New Land Borders Law Is a Nightmare for North Korean Refugees

By Jason Bartlett
Although the main focus of China’s new land law relates to territorial disputes with neighboring countries like India, it also contains specific language applicable to the influx of outside populations.

October 21, 2021

New Rule From US Commerce May Help Limit Spread of North Korean Cybercrime

By Jason Bartlett
How does a new rule barring the export and resale of cyber “intrusion software” to China and Russia without the proper license mitigate the North Korean cyber threat?

October 12, 2021

Unpacking Claims of Secret North Korean Intelligence Operations

By Jason Bartlett
North Korean intelligence capabilities, tactics, and targets have evolved over the decades.
October 05, 2021

Will Japan’s Kishida Take Relations With the Koreas in a New Direction?

By Jason Bartlett
Kishida looks likely to maintain a typical Japanese approach to the two Koreas.

September 28, 2021

US Citizen Helped North Korea Evade Sanctions Through Blockchain

By Jason Bartlett
Virgil Griffith pled guilty to providing technical advice to North Korea on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to evade sanctions.
September 22, 2021

South Korea Commits to Combatting Increased Ransomware Attacks

By Jason Bartlett
Ransomware functions as an inexpensive tool to disrupt both major and minor network systems with potentially high financial gain.

September 10, 2021

Banished Soviet-Koreans Helped Build North Korea

By Jason Bartlett
Pyongyang touts its reclusive nature as an act of national pride free from foreign influence, but outsiders helped establish the state. 

August 30, 2021

Online Shopping for Nukes? Tune Into a North Korean Military Parade.

By Jason Bartlett
North Korean broadcasts of military parades offer a veritable weapons catalog for U.S. adversaries.

August 23, 2021

Washington and Seoul Seek to Diversify the South Korea-US Alliance Through Cyber 

By Jason Bartlett
There’s more to bilateral cyber cooperation than keeping tabs on North Korean hackers.
August 17, 2021

From Ethnic Nationalism to Social Media: How North Korea Leverages Its Soft Power Abroad

By Jason Bartlett
Kim Jong Un recently instructed the country’s propagandists to improve overseas messaging efforts.

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