Introduction

On November 28, 2017, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un professed his nuclear deterrent “complete.” After a year of trading colorful barbs with the American president that dangerously raised the chances of miscalculation and war on the peninsula, as well as significant achievements in North...

Korean Society: North and South

What is North Korea’s Songbun social classification system? After the Korean War, North Korea’s founder and leader Kim Il Sung aggressively moved to enhance his personal power at the top of the North Korean system. He continued to purge individuals and factions that...

Inter-Korean Relations in the Twenty-First Century

What were the inter-Korean summits? North Korean leaders have agreed to meet with all three of South Korea’s progressive presidents but have refused to meet any of its conservative ones. South Korean conservatives toe a harder line on North Korea, including on security...

Korean Leadership in the Twenty-First Century

What were the ten years of progressive rule in South Korea? After South Korea’s democratization in the late 1980s, the country continued to be led by conservative presidents until the South Korean populace elected progressive candidate Kim Dae-jung in 1997; he was inaugurated...

The Future

What are the prospects for Korean unification? The near-term prospects for Korean unification are dim, but unification remains a constitutionally derived, foundational idea of the ROK and DPRK that makes its eventual realization possible. Korean nationalism is strong on both sides of the DMZ....

The Economy

Is North Korea economically self-reliant? North Korean leader Kim Il Sung first declared his emphasis on self-reliance in a 1955 speech. Encapsulating self-reliance of all forms in the Juche ideology, North Korea, too, envisioned an economic model that did not give...

Post–Cold War

How did the Soviet collapse affect Korea? The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 profoundly affected global politics, including for the Korean Peninsula. The Soviet Union had deep ties with North Korea that spanned the course of North Korea’s history as a...

Korea’s Hot War Turns Cold: Korea in the Cold War

What is the Juche philosophy of self-reliance? In 1955, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung delivered a major speech that introduced the world to the Juche idea. Coming just seven years after the establishment of the DPRK, two years after the...

Origins and the Korean War

What is Korea’s “5,000 years of history”? Koreans occasionally refer to their people’s “5,000 years of history,” a description that reflects a well-placed pride in the long and continuous succession of their nation despite having larger nations around them that assimilated others. Korea has...

Us–South Korea Relations in the Twenty-First Century

How do South Koreans see the United States today? South Koreans overwhelmingly see the United States, the US–South Korea alliance, and the American people, positively. The Pew Research Center showed South Koreans had a more positive view of the “American people” than any...