North Korea Archives – The Oxford Student

The Vietnam Summit: An end to the “fire and fury”?

17th March 201917th March 2019Evie McCullough

On February 27, 2019, US President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jung Un met at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. Although many hoped that the Vietnam summit would bring some sort of tangible agreement or accord between the two states, the summit was abruptly cut short on its second day- before the […]

Fashion and political identity in North and South Korea

11th April 201811th April 2018Tara Sallis

Fashion is one of the most basic expressions of art and identity that we can engage with, and crucially we all make style choices every day regardless of where we live or even if we want to. Political tides often play a noticeable part in the cultural landscape of a nation and shifts in culture […]

Two Worlds Colliding: A Review of the North Korean Para-Ensemble at the Sheldonian

5th June 2017Eleanor Sax

Sat in the Sheldonian Theatre on Friday night, I found it hard to grasp the enormity of the event I was at. I was sat before the North Korean Youth Para-Ensemble, in another country for the first time in their lives, on the first stop of their first tour, which also includes Trinity College, Cambridge […]

North Korea: How to combat the ‘Smart Cookie’

22nd May 2017Mayu Noda

The current situation in North Korea is, perhaps especially for me here with my family residing in Japan, a severely concerning one (enough so that, yes, I have produced yet another article on the topic). Much of my apprehension originates from an inability to ‘know’ what is being carried out or planned by other the […]

North Korea’s nuclear threat: will the Cold War never end?

1st May 2017Mayu Noda

With most of my family residing in Japan, I am monitoring the increasingly tense political situation surrounding North Korea with anxiety; with North Korea’s deployment of missiles into the Sea of Japan, Obama’s apprehensions that North Korea would most likely prove the greatest threat encountered by his successor are being realised. The unpredictable politics of […]

Kim Jong Un’s nephew turns down Oxford offer: report

28th February 2017Thomas Shortall

Kim Han Sol, the nephew of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, has reportedly turned down an offer to study at an Oxford graduate college over fears that his uncle could have him assassinated. It is widely believed that Kim Han Sol’s father, Kim Jong Nam, was murdered by agents of the North Korean regime […]

The Interview has been released – but now what?

4th January 2015Alexander Wood

When the first trailer for The Interview was rolled out, promising the usual Rogen and Franco tropes in a vaguely new context, no one could have predicted the events that followed. True, at the film’s first unveiling, North Korea did not hesitate in condemning it but that was swept under the carpet and forgotten with […]