SEOUL, South Korea — “The Worm,” of all people, is our new 007 in North Korea. While attending a celebrity party, the US’ unofficial ambassador to Pyongyang, Dennis Rodman, told the Miami Herald that he’s been in contact with the FBI ever since he visited Pyongyang with an HBO documentary crew in February.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Apr 16, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — Today is the 101st anniversary of the birthday of North Korea’s “Great Leader,” Kim Il Sung. For North Koreans, it’s pretty much the most important holiday of the year, along with Kim Jong Il’s birthday on Feb. 16. They’ll get three days off.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Apr 15, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — North Koreans call it “pigeon torture.” After the authorities accused Jung Gwang Il of espionage, they locked him in a tiny underground cell at the Yodok concentration camp in central North Korea. It’s officially known as “kwanliso,” or “penal labor camp,” No. 15.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 29, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has severed its last remaining military hotline to South Korea, citing the escalating tensions on the peninsula as its reason and causing yet more international worry over the possibility of a violent confrontation between the two states.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 27, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — Last week, the administration of the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, fired a spokesman after a Korean American intern called the police on him.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 15, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a live artillery drill at the same spot from which the North launched its deadly 2010 attack on a South Korean island, fueling tensions on the Korean Peninsula, The Washington Times reported Thursday, citing state media.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 14, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — If North Korea decides to back up its words with action, what could it really do? Most experts agree a full-blown war or a nuclear attack on the peninsula is off the cards. But the two Koreas have dialed up the rhetoric over the past week, raising fears that Pyongyang could launch a quick but containable provocation against the South in the coming months.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 13, 2013

PAJU, South Korea — Lee Eunsook’s artwork glows in the quiet border village of Imjingak as the sun sets over the DMZ, the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. A line of neon-threaded pillars in front of the village’s barbed-wire fence, her installation lists the names of a handful of families separated during the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 12, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — On a frigid winter evening in Seoul, a college student raced out of a popular bistro and vomited near my feet. The owner, Im Choo-sung, followed him out the door. “Would the kids please throw up in the bathroom?” he announced. “The neighbors get angry at all this.”

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Feb 24, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered today for the cremation of Cambodia’s colorful king-father, Norodom Sihanouk, at 5 p.m., bidding their final farewells.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Feb 4, 2013