North Korea

Bureau 39 has been dubbed Kim’s own slush fund. A chain of eateries offers a glimpse into how the North Korean body makes cash.

Kim Jong-il’s youngest son is favourite to succeed him. But his prospects once installed are bleak—unless China steps in.

And will Kim’s successors play his brinkmanship games? The Diplomat asks Asia analyst Adam Ward at the Shangri-la Dialogue.

The Six-Party Talks are looking hopeless, says Minxin Pei. It’s time for policymakers to start planning for the worst. Now.

Chinese policymakers are looking for a change of behavior in North Korea, not in its regime, argues Richard Weitz.

Want to understand Kim Jong-il’s regime? A good place to start might be its cartoons, says Geoffrey Cain.

Signs of a decaying North Korean regime are a reminder of allied failures, says Christian Whiton. Time to weaken it from within.

In this country they assume you’re an enemy right off the bat,” the elderly Polish-American tourist said as our ancient Soviet airplane descended into the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on the regular Air Koryo flight from the northern Chinese city of Shenyang.

In 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, Francis Fukuyama asked whether the world had reached ‘the end of history’.

With North Korea’s latest acts of defiance again grabbing the world’s attention – an underground nuclear test last week and several missile firings – all eyes have turned to China to rein in its secretive neighbour.

Living in Kemalist Turkey is instructive in how a country can nourish a Great Leader cult and still veer short of dictatorship.