Installing a controversial US missile defence system in South Korea was never going to be easy but, caught between Beijing’s opposition and American insistence, the country’s new president has a strategy: delay. Seoul suspended deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system this week following a furious campaign of economic sanctions and diplomatic protests … Read more
Outside a large stone tablet acclaims “the work of Dear Leader Kim Jong-Un who devoted hard work and heart and soul to make our people the happiest and most civilised people”. On the ski fields of Mount Taehwa, groomed pistes snake down wooded hillsides to a luxurious hotel and a giant screen showing a North … Read more
On the ski fields of Mount Taehwa, groomed pistes snake down wooded hillsides to a luxurious hotel and a giant screen showing a North Korean army choir. But the runs are empty. Work began on Masikryong ski resort, the only one in the North and the brainchild of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, after Pyeongchang in … Read more
On the ski fields of Mount Taehwa, groomed pistes snake down wooded hillsides to a luxurious hotel and a giant screen showing a North Korean army choir. But the runs are empty. Work began on Masikryong ski resort, the only one in the North and the brainchild of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, after Pyeongchang in … Read more
On the side streets of Pyongyang, small traders sell vegetables from impromptu stalls. At markets, dealers offer imported household goods — even Coca-Cola — and in state-owned department stores hard currency is openly exchanged at black-market rates. Officially, North Korea denies it is reforming and declares it remains guided by the Juche, or self-reliance, philosophy … Read more