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Jean H. Lee

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feature stories, news articles & op-eds

Featured
BBC Radio 4: A Korean Thaw?
Feb 12, 2018
BBC Radio 4: A Korean Thaw?
Feb 12, 2018

From bombs to Olympic banners: Can winter sports diplomacy stop a war in the Korean peninsula? North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un took the world by surprise with his announcement that his nation and South Koreawould unite under a single banner at the Winter Olympics. Was it a diplomatic masterstroke or a cynical stunt? Journalist Jean Lee pieces together what really led to this public relations coup. 

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Feb 12, 2018
New York Times Sunday Review: Will North Korea Win the Gold Medal for Deceit?
Feb 8, 2018
New York Times Sunday Review: Will North Korea Win the Gold Medal for Deceit?
Feb 8, 2018

North Korea’s participation in these Olympics runs the risk of rewarding bad behavior and handing Mr. Kim a diplomatic victory that he will brandish as proof that his strategy was right. Still, we have to start somewhere after so many years of tension.

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Feb 8, 2018
KEI: Soap Operas and Socialism
Dec 18, 2017
KEI: Soap Operas and Socialism
Dec 18, 2017

Romance, humor, tension — everyone loves a good sitcom, even North Koreans. But in North Korea, TV dramas are more than mere entertainment. They play a crucial political role by serving as a key messenger of party and government policy. They aim to shape social and cultural mores in North Korean society. And in the Kim Jong-un era, they act as an advertisement for the “good life” promised to the political elite. 

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Dec 18, 2017
New York Times Op-Ed: Donald Trump is giving North Korea exactly what it wants
Aug 11, 2017
New York Times Op-Ed: Donald Trump is giving North Korea exactly what it wants
Aug 11, 2017

If President Trump thinks that his threats last week of “fire and fury” and weapons “locked and loaded” have North Koreans quaking in their boots, he should think again. If anything, the Mao-suit-clad cadres in Pyongyang are probably gleeful that the president of the United States has played straight into their propaganda.

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Aug 11, 2017
Esquire: Inside Kim Jong Un's bloody scramble to kill off his family
Aug 10, 2017
Esquire: Inside Kim Jong Un's bloody scramble to kill off his family
Aug 10, 2017

While Kim Jong Un stares down his enemies abroad, it's easy to forget that he's also fighting a battle from within his own borders: to survive at all costs. Like any autocratic leader, he's under constant pressure to maintain order and allegiance. But his youth and inexperience make staying in power that much more of a challenge, which in turn requires absolute control. Opposition must be eliminated. No one is safe, not even his own family.

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Aug 10, 2017
Wilson Quarterly: For North Korea, the War Never Ended
Jun 1, 2017
Wilson Quarterly: For North Korea, the War Never Ended
Jun 1, 2017

We in the United States often call the Korean conflict the “Forgotten War.” My high school history textbook in Minnesota devoted barely a paragraph to it, and growing up as the child of Korean immigrants, I knew almost nothing about a war my own parents survived as children. But the war is very much alive and present in North Korea, and the standoff with the United States figures prominently in their propaganda, identity, and policy. 

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Jun 1, 2017
New York Times Op-Ed: North Korea's Palace Intrigue
Feb 24, 2017
New York Times Op-Ed: North Korea's Palace Intrigue
Feb 24, 2017

After the 14th-century Korean ruler Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty, chose the youngest of his eight sons to succeed him, a spurned son killed the heir apparent and at least one of his other half brothers and eventually rose to the throne. Today, rumors of royal fratricide are again swirling, this time around the court of Kim Jong-un, the ruler of North Korea.

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Feb 24, 2017
Jan 7, 2016
New York Times Magazine: Kim Jong Un's Generational Ambitions
Jan 7, 2016

It was party time in Pyongyang. Workers scrambled to hang congratulatory banners in the lobby of the Koryo Hotel, my home away from home in the North Korean capital, where I was posted as an Associated Press correspondent. A gaggle of cooks, still in aprons and chef’s hats, dashed out from the kitchen to watch the festivities, and mothers tightened the pink bows in their daughters’ hair as the girls fidgeted in anticipation.

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Jan 7, 2016
Jul 20, 2013
AP: Vet Returns to North Korea for 1st Black Navy Aviator
Jul 20, 2013

Two years after he made history by becoming the Navy's first black pilot, Ensign Jesse Brown lay trapped in his downed fighter plane in subfreezing North Korea, his leg broken and bleeding. His wingman crash-landed to try to save him, and even burned his hands trying to put out the flames.

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Jul 20, 2013
AP: Pyongyang Glitters, but Rest of North Korea Still Dark
Apr 29, 2013
AP: Pyongyang Glitters, but Rest of North Korea Still Dark
Apr 29, 2013

A year after leader Kim Jong Un promised in a speech to bring an end to the "era of belt-tightening" and economic hardship in North Korea, the gap between the haves and have-nots has only grown with Pyongyang's transformation.

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Apr 29, 2013
AP: Sweeping New Changes Expected at North Korean Farms
Sep 24, 2012
AP: Sweeping New Changes Expected at North Korean Farms
Sep 24, 2012

North Korean farmers who have long been required to turn most of their crops over to the state may now be allowed to keep their surplus food to sell or barter in what could be the most significant economic change enacted by young leader Kim Jong Un since he came to power nine months ago.

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Sep 24, 2012
AP: Ex-North Korean Star Recalls 'Ping Pong Diplomacy'
Jul 12, 2012
AP: Ex-North Korean Star Recalls 'Ping Pong Diplomacy'
Jul 12, 2012

Her eyes well up when Li Pun Hui recalls her role in a historic example of "ping pong diplomacy."

"For 50 days, 24 hours a day, we lived together as one, trained together, slept in the same room and ate all our meals together," Li told The Associated Press at an interview in Pyongyang. "We shared the same food and our feelings."

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Jul 12, 2012
AP: In North Korea, learning to hate US starts early
Jun 23, 2012
AP: In North Korea, learning to hate US starts early
Jun 23, 2012

For North Koreans, the systematic indoctrination of anti-Americanism starts as early as kindergarten and is as much a part of the curriculum as learning to count.

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Jun 23, 2012
AP: North Korea's Bethlehem is Birthplace of Kim Religion
Apr 8, 2012
AP: North Korea's Bethlehem is Birthplace of Kim Religion
Apr 8, 2012

As the snow drifts through the towering evergreen trees, silence enshrouds this remote pilgrimage site, a place some here consider the Bethlehem of North Korea.

As North Korea celebrates the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth, his past, like the misty peaks of Mount Paektu, remains veiled in myth.

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Apr 8, 2012
AP: North Korea Rebuilds Pyongyang to Welcome New Leader
Mar 31, 2012
AP: North Korea Rebuilds Pyongyang to Welcome New Leader
Mar 31, 2012

Scores of soldiers march through a zone sealed off by green mesh fencing and checkpoints. A crew of about 1,000 soldiers and 2,000 police officers works around the clock, along with thousands more civilians in street clothes and hard hats, spurred on by billboards that rate their performance.

But they are not building tanks here at the foot of Mansu Hill, or weapons, except perhaps for a propaganda war. They are building 3,000 new apartments, a department store, schools and a theater, in the hope of selling a modern version of Pyongyang to the people of North Korea albeit one that most will never get to see.

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Mar 31, 2012
AP: China Brings Supermarket Concept to North Korea
Feb 26, 2012
AP: China Brings Supermarket Concept to North Korea
Feb 26, 2012

In his last public appearance, late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il went shopping. He peered at the prices affixed to shelves packed with everything from Pantene shampoo to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. And he nodded his approval of Pyongyang's version of Walmart, which was soon to open courtesy of China.

The visit played up a decidedly un-communist development in North Korea: A new culture of commerce is springing up, with China as its inspiration and source. 

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Feb 26, 2012
AP: Shades of North Korea's Founder in Its Young New Leader
Jan 7, 2012
AP: Shades of North Korea's Founder in Its Young New Leader
Jan 7, 2012

The resemblance is striking: the full cheeks and quick smile, the confident gait, the habit of gesturing with both hands when he speaks.North Korea's young new leader, Kim Jong Un, appears to be fashioning himself as the reincarnation of Kim Il Sung, his grandfather and the nation's founder, as he seeks to solidify his hold on the nation of 24 million in the wake of his father's death last month.

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Jan 7, 2012
AP: A Look at North Korea Finds Country on Cusp of Change
Aug 3, 2011
AP: A Look at North Korea Finds Country on Cusp of Change
Aug 3, 2011

Communist North Korea is a world both foreign and familiar, a place where the men wear Mao suits and children tote Mickey Mouse backpacks, where they call one another "comrade" and love their spicy kimchi.

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Aug 3, 2011
AP: Quiet Digital Revolution Under Way in North Korea
Jul 24, 2011
AP: Quiet Digital Revolution Under Way in North Korea
Jul 24, 2011

North Korea is undergoing its own digital revolution, even as it grapples with chronic shortages of food and fuel. It is still among the most isolated of nations, with cyberspace policies considered among the most restrictive in the world. Yet inside Pyongyang, there's a small but growing digital world, and a whole new vocabulary to go with it: CNC, e-libraries, IT, an operating system called Red Star and a Web portal called Naenara.

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Jul 24, 2011
AP: North Korea's Rooney Loves His Cars, Clothes and Rap
Jun 14, 2010
AP: North Korea's Rooney Loves His Cars, Clothes and Rap
Jun 14, 2010

He plays like Rooney but behaves a little like Beckham. He loves his cars, his rap music and his clothes, and changes hairstyles more often than you can say "Kim Jong Il."North Korea striker Jong Tae Se is not your average North Korean.

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Jun 14, 2010
May 19, 2010
AP: For the 2 Koreas, Joint Appearance at World Cup Turns Sour
May 19, 2010

With both North and South Korea in the World Cup for the first time, many on this war-divided peninsula were hoping that sports could cross the border and unite people. But the sinking of a South Korean warship in March has shattered the mood and heightened tensions between the two nations, turning the World Cup into a missed opportunity less than a month before the games start.

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May 19, 2010
take me to the archive
North Korean soldiers mark the birthday of late President Kim Il Sung by visiting his birthplace. Photo credit: Jean H. Lee. All Rights Reserved.

North Korean soldiers mark the birthday of late President Kim Il Sung by visiting his birthplace. Photo credit: Jean H. Lee. All Rights Reserved.

AP: North Koreans Honor Founder's Birth with Flags, Flowers →

April 13, 2011

Bearing bouquets and dressed in their finest, row after row of North Koreans bowed deeply on cue at the foot of a towering statue of late President Kim Il Sung to mark his birthday, the nation's most important holiday.

April 15 is called "The Day of the Sun" in honor of the former guerrilla fighter who founded North Korea in 1948 and maintains godlike status in the country now led by his son, Kim Jong Il. In preparation for the holiday, workers fanned out across Pyongyang on Thursday to decorate the city, climbing ladders to adorn buildings with celebratory banners and crouching in flower beds to plant marigolds, mums and bright-red begonias.

Each man has a flower named for him, and both blooms could be seen throughout the capital ahead of the two-day springtime holiday that offers North Koreans a chance to relax with friends and family over a leisurely picnic by the river or a night at the amusement park.

This year, it's also an occasion to rally national pride as the country undergoes a sensitive leadership transition and as tensions with the outside world persist.

Kim Il Sung led North Korea for decades until his death from heart failure in 1994 and was succeeded by his son in a hereditary succession heralded as the first in the communist world. Now 69, son Kim Jong Il is grooming his third son, Kim Jong Un, to eventually assume the mantle of leadership.

It's widely believed Kim Jong Il will formally bestow the son, who is in his late 20s and is known familiarly in Pyongyang as "the Young General," with top-level posts over the next year confirming his status as the next leader.

Since making his debut at a political convention in September, he has already been made a four-star general and appointed to a top military post within the ruling Workers' Party. Prominent positions on the National Defense Commission and the Workers' Party are expected to follow.

At the thatched cottage in Pyongyang's outskirts where Kim Il Sung spent his early years, guide Kim Jin Ok said the young Kim hasn't yet toured the humble home that has become a mecca for North Koreans. But she hoped he would make the trip next year - the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth and a major milestone in the country's history.

"He hasn't been here yet, but we hope that when we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the president's birth next year, Gen. Kim Jong Il and his son will come for a visit," she said as hundreds of North Koreans, from ruddy-faced cadets to blue-clad traffic police in knee-high black boots, filed past.

North Korea's leadership has spurred the country to strive toward becoming a "great and prosperous nation" in 2012, one excelling in science and technology, with a robust and self-sufficient economy.

It's an ambitious challenge for a country sanctioned by the U.N. and frozen out by a host of nations for developing its nuclear and missile programs, and struggling to feed its people in the wake of decades of economic hardship and one of the harshest winters in history.

Last fall's harvest was meager, subzero temperatures are expected to affect the spring crop and foot-and-mouth disease has weakened and killed scores of livestock, the World Food Program, Food and Agriculture Organization and UNICEF said in a report last month after conducting an extensive survey.

About a quarter of the country's 24 million people need outside food aid, the report said. The concern comes as North Korea heads into the "lean" period from May through July - the stretch between the spring growing season and the fall harvest.

"Food aid is needed now to prevent another major crisis," said Kathi Zellweger, country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. "The problem is more an urban problem: People in the rural areas seem to have more food than people in the cities who mostly depend on public distribution systems."

In the showcase capital, however, food appeared in plentiful supply. The country's centerpiece city was in a celebratory mood this week as residents welcomed the delayed arrival of spring after a long, cold winter and made plans for the two-day national holiday Friday and Saturday.

Women in traditional Korean dresses and clutching flowers wrapped in cellophane scurried down streets, spring jackets thrown over billowing "chima" skirts. One young man sped down the street with a girl on the back of his motorbike, a huge spray of flowers squeezed between them.

International hotels were filled with foreign guests arriving with musical instruments strapped to their backs to perform at an arts festival. Posters plastered on the walls advertised a magic show promising that planes would disappear before their very eyes.

At Mansu Hill in central Pyongyang, North Koreans paid their respects at the 60-foot-tall (20-meter-tall) statue of Kim Il Sung: scampering children holding hands, grandmothers in traditional dress, military men in uniforms bedecked with medals.

Security personnel scanned ceremonial flower baskets filled with calla lilies, carnations and red the "kimjongilia" begonias named after the current leader as groups waited their turn to climb the steps up to the statue. Given the OK, they surged forward with their flowers, pausing as mournful music played over the loudspeakers and then bowing in unison.

Flowers, real and fake, were laid at the many statues of Kim Il Sung across the city, from the university that bears his name to the elementary school he attended as a child.

College student Ri Yu Jong said after paying her respects with her family at Mansu Hill or at Kim's birthplace, she planned to meet up with friends.

"We'll probably get together to see the night view at the Arch of Triumph and then I want to eat Pyongyang noodles," the 21-year-old said in fluent English during a break from the swimming pool at Kim Il Sung University, pink goggles pushed onto her forehead.

She called April 15 "the best day of the year" but predicted next year's 100th anniversary celebration would be even bigger.

Nowhere was Kim more colorfully honored than at an exhibition hall featuring elaborate floral displays featuring the "kimilsungia," a delicate, violet-colored flower shaped like a butterfly and tipped with white. More than 20,000 pots of kimilsungia flowers filled the hall in displays offered by government agencies, student groups and foreign embassies.

"We miss the beaming image of the great president" read a slogan emblazoned in gold on the wall beneath a huge portrait of the late leader capturing his trademark laugh.

In AP, News articles Tags North Korea, holidays, Kim Il Sung, Day of the Sun
← AP: Quiet Digital Revolution Under Way in North Korea AP: A Rare Glimpse at a Different Side of North Korea →

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Jun 11, 2018
Wilson Center: A Historic Handshake
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Jun 10, 2018
Wilson Center: ‘Kim Jong Un, International Statesman’
Jun 10, 2018
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May 15, 2018
NPR: 2 Generations, 2 Different Perspectives On Korean Reunification
May 15, 2018
May 15, 2018
Feb 12, 2018
BBC Radio 4: A Korean Thaw?
Feb 12, 2018
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Feb 8, 2018
New York Times Sunday Review: Will North Korea Win the Gold Medal for Deceit?
Feb 8, 2018
Feb 8, 2018
Jan 21, 2018
Getty Images: Skiers at North Korea's Masikryong ski resort
Jan 21, 2018
Jan 21, 2018
Dec 18, 2017
KEI: Soap Operas and Socialism
Dec 18, 2017
Dec 18, 2017
Oct 10, 2017
Prospect: Kim Jong-un has realised there’s a benefit to behaving badly
Oct 10, 2017
Oct 10, 2017
Copyright Jean H. Lee 2014