North Korea

Whether the country is closing its borders to stop Ebola or being accused of hacking a major film studio, the DPRK can’t seem to stay out of the news. I recently had a digital conversation with Bradley Martin, one of the leading experts on the DPRK, about some of the inner workings of the country and the ethics of taking a tour into North Korea.

What life is like leading tourist in the DPRK.

The recent passing of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il received substantiaily less fanfare from both those abroad and those south of the border than one might have suspected. While North Koreans mourned excruciatingly – a phenomenal display of chest-beating, swooning, and hysterical writhing – for days on end, setting Kim’s petrified body on perpetual display, neither Washington [...]

A half century has now passed since Korea was bifurcated along the 38th Parallel, and the contending sides could not have developed along more opposing paths. As North Korea absconded under the cloak of a dictorial regime South Korea opened up to the West and is now booming with commerce. What was once a single culture is now two very different societies. What is the future of the Korean Peninsula? Can the two sides reunite, or are they now too different? Does anyone care anymore? With those who can even remember a unified Korea passing into old age and decreasing in number, vagabondjourny.com’s Korean correspondent, Tiffany Zappulla, asks these questions.

I saw the red flags of North Korea blazing the stands as Brazil played the Communist nation on the football pitch below. I don’t think I have ever seen this flag before, let alone watching it being displayed prominently on international television. Has North Korea began to open up to the world? Has their first [...]