Yes kids, it is must read material time again, and NKEconWatch delivers. Andrei Lankov wrote a piece in Asian Times about the current happenings in North Korea. Now as all North Korea watchers I know, know, Lankov is one of the few North Korea watchers who can be called the closest to an expert one can get. This goes along …

Walter sent me this via E-Mail quite some time ago, and I think it is time to post it. Not only because it is interesting, but because I like this kind of thing. Enjoy!
With a degenerating itinerary our group of seven veterans of the DPRK lobbied the guides to take us to Pyongyang’s Italian Restaurant, opened in April 2009 with …

Via NKEconWatch:
UPDATE 3: Northeast Asia Matters has posted a copy of the DPRK constitution in English.  Click here to read.
I have been looking for this for quite some time, and now it is available. Reading through it, not huge, groundbreaking changes were made, but enough to (what I guess) a legacy for Kim. Tim will tell the real reason behind …

A big thank you to Walter for the E-mail containing some really neat pictures and DPRK footage. There are so many pictures and goodies, I do not know where to begin to comment on some of them. After this posting, they will be added to the “North Korea in Pictures” section. Again, I appreciate the resources. Enjoy!
Oh, and I cannot …

Yes, it has been a while since I have been regularly posting news, and maybe today is a good day to start. Some news has come from North Korea, although nothing really earth-shattering.
North Korea May Be Open to Talks (New York Times) – In a chilling turn of events, Kim is willing to go back to the table and discuss …

It is most likely most DPRK watchers know of Lankov’s work, and this PDF is probably no exception. This paper argues North Korea’s Stalinist style regime is falling apart, which is probably dead on. This also agrees with the bottom-up process of marketization, futile attempts at reforms, and a people more interested in survival rather than ideology. While it is …

Confirmations in North Korea is nearly non-existent, and even if there was a confirmation, it is usually smart to question that as well. Therefore, in the world of rumors regarding Kim Jong Un and his supposed role and/or authority in the Kim regime seem to be front and center? Granted, it is not so much now, but the questions still …

I was looking up the status of North Korea’s debt, and to see how others rate the state. Then I ran into an interesting article about North Korean Debt Certificates. This thing is probably worth contemplating. As most North Korea watchers know, North Korea’s debt defaulted quite a while ago, and some of the debt was written off. Of course, …

It appears the Ryugyong Hotel is making some progress, at least on the outside. When construction resumed sometime last year, I almost fell out of my chair. I could not believe such a project would ever resume with the many serious problems this thing obviously has. So I open Google News this morning, and see the picture on the right; …

In studying the Arduous March, North Korea experienced one of the most deadly famines of the 20th century. According to Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard in the very well-written book, Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform. Call me odd (which should be no surprise to anybody), but I became an instant fan of these two economists. The reason …