IN THE NEWS

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Nov 22, 2018

National Geographic: Inside North Korea's Dynasty

Nov 22, 2018

With North Korea's relations with the rest of the world at a new and unpredictable inflection point, National Geographic Documentary Films presents INSIDE NORTH KOREA'S DYNASTY, a groundbreaking four-episode documentary series that examines the extraordinary history of the world's only communist dynasty, three generations in the making. Featuring interviews with journalist Jean H. Lee.

Nov 22, 2018

Oct 28, 2018

ABC national radio in Australia: North Korea from the Inside

Oct 28, 2018

When experienced reporter Jean Lee took on the role of AP bureau chief in Seoul, she was asked to establish a bureau in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.

The task, which seemed almost impossible, became even less certain when the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Il, disappeared.

Jean managed to open the news bureau in 2012, and was witness to the momentous change brought to North Korea by Kim Jong Il’s death.

Oct 28, 2018

Jun 6, 2018

CBS News' Face the Nation

Jun 6, 2018

Jean Lee joins host Margaret Brennan and Sue Mi Terry of CSIS to discuss the latest on North Korea on Face the Nation.

Jun 6, 2018

Feb 22, 2018

VICE News Tonight: Binge watching North Korean TV is surreal — and educational

Feb 22, 2018

To understand more about what North Koreans are watching and what the government wants them to think, we arranged a screening with Jean Lee, who became an expert in North Korean television when she worked as a journalist in Pyongyang.

Feb 22, 2018

Feb 21, 2018

VICE News Tonight (HBO): North Korean soap operas

Feb 21, 2018

In order to learn more about Kim’s policy priorities and everyday life in the secretive kingdom, VICE News binges North Korean soaps with the Wilson Center’s Jean Lee.

Feb 21, 2018

Feb 10, 2018

NPR's All Things Considered: The Political Gamesmanship Behind The 2018 Winter Olympics

Feb 10, 2018

Michel Martin asks North Korea expert Jean Lee, former Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert, and former COO for the U.S. Olympic Committee Lt. Gen. Wallace Gregson about behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

Feb 10, 2018

Jan 18, 2018

NPR WBUR Here and Now: North Korean Olympic performers 'propaganda coup'

Jan 18, 2018

Jean Lee (@newsjean) is a journalist and Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. She speaks with Here & Now's Robin Young about the Olympic detente that North and South Korea are negotiating, which is leading to a unified march during the PyeongChang Olympics opening ceremony next month, and a delegation of North Korean musicians and cheerleaders attending the games.

Jan 18, 2018

Jan 8, 2018

NPR, All Things Considered: North Koreans' Attitudes Of The U.S.

Jan 8, 2018

The relationship between President Trump and Kim Jong Un made headlines again this past week. NPR's Michel Martin talks with North Korea expert Jean H. Lee, of the Wilson Center about how people on the Korean peninsula view the U.S.

Jan 8, 2018

Aug 25, 2017

C-SPAN: The Rise and Rule of North Korea's Kim Dynasty

Aug 25, 2017

The Sidebar with Steve Scully: As tensions with North Korea rise, this week we examine the history of that country's ruling Kim family. We spoke to Jean H Lee, author of "Kings of Communism: Inside Kim Jong Un's Bloody Scramble to Kill of His Family" in the September edition of Esquire Magazine.

Aug 25, 2017

Apr 15, 2017

PBS NewsHour: North Korea rebukes US as Navy strike group advances

Apr 15, 2017

North Korea marked its most important holiday today -- the Day of the Sun, which commemorates the birthday of founding ruler Kim Il-sung. Jean Lee joins Hari Sreenivasan from Seoul for more on tensions with North Korea.

Apr 15, 2017

Recent media appearances

Featured

May 6, 2019

NPR Morning Edition: North Korea Conducts Another Missile Test

May 6, 2019

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Jean Lee, a policy expert at the Wilson Center, about the significance of North Korea's latest weapons test. The Trump administration is downplaying the test.

May 6, 2019

Apr 11, 2019

NPR All Things Considered: Where Relations Stand Between The U.S., South Korea And North Korea

Apr 11, 2019

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with the Wilson Center's Jean Lee about where denuclearization negotiations stand between the U.S., South Korea and North Korea.

Apr 11, 2019

Mar 24, 2019

The Nation: North Korea Through the Eyes of an American Dissident

Mar 24, 2019

he collapse of the US–North Korean denuclearization negotiations in Hanoi earlier this month and the prospect of a return to President Trump’s hard-line rhetoric of 2017 have intensified public interest in what life is really like inside the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a country known as one of the most repressive on earth. So it’s no surprise that dozens of Washingtonians have come to see John Feffer’s new play, Next Stop: North Korea. It’s the latest in a series of one-person dramas the author, novelist, and sometime Nation contributor has written and performed in over the past eight years.

Mar 24, 2019

Mar 1, 2019

CBS News: Trump and Kim to meet in Hanoi for second summit

Mar 1, 2019

Jean Lee speaking with CBS News in the days before the Feb. 27-28, 2019, Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi.

Mar 1, 2019

New Yorker: After All the Swagger, Trump’s Talks with North Korea Collapse

Mar 1, 2019

Feb 28, 2019

New York Times: Trump’s Talks With Kim Jong-un Collapse Over North Korean Sanctions

Feb 28, 2019

“I worry about the consequences,” said Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the Wilson Center, a research organization in Washington. “Did these two leaders and their teams build up enough good will to keep the lines of communication open, or are we headed into another period of stalled negotiations — or worse, tensions — that would give the North Koreans more time and incentive to keep building their weapons program?”

“This result leaves very little room for Kim to save face,” she added.

Feb 28, 2019

Feb 27, 2019

New York Times: Trump Meets Kim Jong-un to Start Summit Talks

Feb 27, 2019

Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the Wilson Center, a Washington-based research organization, said of Mr. Kim that “he does want a changed relationship with the United States, and to improve his country’s shattered economy.”

“But we need to remember that he sacrificed his people’s well-being, making decisions that deprived them of food, clean water, electricity, heat and medicine, in order to build nuclear weapons,” Ms. Lee added. “He won’t be willing to give his weapons up readily, and may be prepared to sacrifice his people again if things don’t go his way.”

Feb 27, 2019

NPR: What Has Been Accomplished Since The First Trump-Kim Summit?

Feb 27, 2019

ANALYSIS

What Has Been Accomplished Since The First Trump-Kim Summit?

February 27, 20195:01 AM ET

Heard on Morning Edition

Rachel Martin talks to Jean Lee, a Korea expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, about expectations for the second summit between President Trump and North Korea's leader.

Feb 27, 2019

Feb 26, 2019

Fox News: Kim Jong Un faces mounting pressure to get sanctions relief for North Korea

Feb 26, 2019

Kim Jong Un faces mounting pressure to get sanctions relief for North Korea

Feb. 25, 2019 - 4:08 - North Koreans are going without heat during an incredibly cold winter, says Jean Lee, director at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Feb 26, 2019

CNN: Trump Kim summit: What does a win for North Korea look like in Hanoi?

Feb 26, 2019

Feb 11, 2019

PBS documentary: The Dictator's Playbook, Episode 1, Kim Il Sung

Feb 11, 2019

He was a legendary guerilla fighter, battling to free Korea from Japanese occupation in the 1930s. He went on to start the Korean war—and establish North Korea as the most controlled society on earth. How did Kim Il Sung rise to power, transform himself into a “living god,” and launch a dictatorship that has lasted for three generations?

Jean H. Lee provides commentary on Kim Il Sung’s rise to power in this PBS documentary.

Feb 11, 2019

Feb 9, 2019

Discussing the upcoming Trump-Kim summit on VoA's Washington Talk TV show

Feb 9, 2019

2차 미국 정상회담 일정이 공개됐는데, 이번 회담에서는 실질적인 진전이 이뤄져야 한다는 기대가 커지고 있습니다. 비핵화와 상응조치를 두고 미북 간 어떤 타결이 가능할 지 분석합니다. 회담 개최국 베트남은 북한이 선택할 경제 개방과 외교 관계 개선의 모델이 될 지 살펴봅니다. 진행: 조은정 / 대담: 스콧 스나이더(미 외교협회 미한정책국장), 진 리(우드로 윌슨센터 한국국장) #VOA #워싱턴톡 #2차미북정상회담 #베트남 #하노이 #비핵화 #비건 #김혁철 Originally published at - https://www.voakorea.com/a/4779663.html

Feb 9, 2019

Feb 4, 2019

Washington Post: He helped Trump confront North Korea. Now Ji Seong-ho wonders whether human rights will be left behind.

Feb 4, 2019

Jan 31, 2019

Quoted in the New York Times: U.S. Appears to Soften Timing for List of North Korea’s Nuclear Assets

Jan 31, 2019

“Both the South Koreans and the North Koreans have made a very compelling case for starting the process with at least a declaration,” Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, said at a talk there on Wednesday.

Jan 31, 2019

Jan 18, 2019

NPR: Who Is North Korean Diplomat Kim Yong-Chol?

Jan 18, 2019

A top North Korean Diplomat Kim Yong-chol met with President Trump Friday. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with journalist Jean Lee of the Wilson Center about the diplomat's background.

Jan 18, 2019

Nov 22, 2018

National Geographic: Inside North Korea's Dynasty

Nov 22, 2018

Oct 28, 2018

ABC national radio in Australia: North Korea from the Inside

Oct 28, 2018

When experienced reporter Jean Lee took on the role of AP bureau chief in Seoul, she was asked to establish a bureau in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.

The task, which seemed almost impossible, became even less certain when the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Il, disappeared.

Jean managed to open the news bureau in 2012, and was witness to the momentous change brought to North Korea by Kim Jong Il’s death.

Oct 28, 2018

Sep 18, 2018

NPR Here and Now: Kim Jong Un Agrees To Shut Missile Site, On One Major Condition

Sep 18, 2018

The leaders of North and South Korea announced a wide range of agreements Wednesday, which they said were a major step toward peace on the Korean peninsula. But the premier pledge of denuclearization contained a big precondition: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he'd permanently dismantle his main nuclear complex only if the United States takes corresponding measures.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with Jean Lee (@newsjean), director of the Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Wilson Center.

Sep 18, 2018

Aug 15, 2018

New York Times: Why Is the U.S. Wary of a Declaration to End the Korean War?

Aug 15, 2018

“You have South Korea moving so quickly on these projects to push for reconciliation with North Korea, and in Washington you have people pushing for denuclearization before anything else happens,” said Jean H. Lee, director of the Wilson Center’s center for Korean history and public policy. “They have very different end games and very different time frames. It’s very problematic.”

Aug 15, 2018

Jul 13, 2018

CNBC: The US is trying to nail down terms with Pyongyang, while 'South Koreans aren't wasting time'

Jul 13, 2018

"The more protracted the U.S.-North Korean negotiations, the more potential for a gap between Washington and Seoul on North Korea policy as South Korea makes moves to lift its sanctions to allow for economic partnership.”

Jul 13, 2018

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Haaretz: AP's Senior Editor Tells Haaretz: Pyongyang Reports Will Not Be Censored read more: http://www.haaretz.com/ap-s-senior-editor-tells-haaretz-pyongyang-reports-will-not-be-censored-1.408871 →

January 24, 2012

IN THE NEWS

Recent media appearances

ANALYSIS

What Has Been Accomplished Since The First Trump-Kim Summit?

Kim Jong Un faces mounting pressure to get sanctions relief for North Korea

ARCHIVE

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