The Korean Odyssey

  *A gloomy day in Pyongyang.  We often talk about ‘economic crisis’ in North Korea, but ‘crisis’ may well be part of the North Korean system. ⓒ iStock   Il Young Jeong Research Professor_Institute of Social Sciences_Sogang University I have to confess that I have been expecting another North Korean economic crisis for many years now, perhaps even since I first began researching North Korea. While I draw the line at promoting the theory that North Korea is bound to collapse if it faces another economic crisis, I have made comments in the past about how difficult it would be for the regime to survive “if things continue as they have” or in the “next three (or five) years”. However, after experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, I became suspicious that my judgment could be wrong. This article does not attempt to debate whether an economic crisis will lead to North Korea’s downfall, but rather to look for an explanation as to how the system has continued to survive in spite...

  * With the situation on the Korean Peninsula deteriorating, we need to freeze military training on both sides.  ⓒOhmynews   Il Young Jeong Research Professor_Institute of Social Sciences_Sogang University Dialogue has long been missing on the peninsula, while the number of armed protests between the two Koreas only continues to increase. This article criticizes the South Korean government's policy of simply "patience" without any alternative plans and proposes a simultaneous suspension of North Korea's nuclear testing and South Korea-U.S. joint drills.   Can we call waiting for North Korea’s next nuclear test a ‘strategy’? Since the beginning of 2022, the South Korean government and media have been working themselves up predicting when North Korea will conduct a nuclear test and guessing at dates. For example, On September 28th, 2022, the National Intelligence Service reported to the National Assembly Intelligence Committee that North Korea could conduct a nuclear ...

  *The metaverse could be a game changer for peace on the Korean Peninsula. ⓒ iStock   Il Young Jeong Research Professor_Institute of Social Sciences_Sogang University The concept of the “metaverse” first appeared in the 1992 science-fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. The word ‘metaverse’ is a combination of "meta" (meaning to transcend) and "universe”. The metaverse refers to a third dimension digital, virtual space that replicates the politics, economy, society and culture already existing in our reality and gives people the opportunity to experience things they otherwise could not in ‘real life’. In this article, I would like to explore the possibility of and options for a metaverse on the Korean Peninsula as an inter-Korean digital border zone for exchange and cooperation.   The dream of a metaverse on the Korean Peninsula   The metaverse, first conceived of as an imaginary world in the 1990s, has since reappeared before us in the 2020s. Wi...