The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) and AEI will be launching a new HRNK report entitled, “Marked For Life: Songbun, North Korea’s Social Classification System,” which will be discussed at this event. The panel will also examine the extent to which the growing reliance on money and bribery is eroding the songbun system’s influence.

Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever.

Panelists discussed the Koreas and Nick Eberstadt's upcoming book, Policy and Economic Performance in Divided Korea during the Cold War Era: 1945-91.

South Korean president-elect Lee Myung-bak will take office on February 25, 2008. A member of the conservative Grand National Party and former executive of the Hyundai Corporation, Lee won the December 2007 contest by the largest margin since the advent of competitive democratic elections in the Republic of Korea (ROK)...

Seven years into the George W. Bush presidency, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea can point to a number of important domestic and international successes, despite the highly unfavorable environment that has confronted its leadership.

Throughout this period, Pyongyang has been able to suppress all internal dissent and remain the...

An annotated syllabus on North Korean politics, culture, and economy.

In December 2002, South Korean president Roh Mu Hyun was narrowly elected on the Millenium Democratic Party (MDP)--the newly unified then-opposition party—ticket during a wave of progressive, nationalistic sentiment. Since taking office, however, he has been dogged by economic hardship, security concerns, and corruption scandals. The MDP formally split in...

Scholars gathered at AEI to consider inter-Koran trade policy and its implications.