SEOUL, South Korea — Koreans like to joke by welcoming foreign visitors to the “Republic of Samsung.” Among an oligarchy of competitors, South Korea’s largest conglomerate is a ubiquitous presence.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 4, 2013
The nephew of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, could be partying hard tonight. Kim Han Sol, 17, attended his high school graduation ceremony today in Bosnia, the Serbian daily newspaper Novosti reported. The news comes after the North Korean teenager went missing from class in April — a mystery that nobody has yet cracked.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 3, 2013
South Korean President Park Geun-hye has warned North Korea not to punish a group of defectors who were forcibly returned to the communist state last week after attempting to flee.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 3, 2013
In the 1990s, North Korea suffered from a devastating famine that, by some estimates, left up to 1 million people dead.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
May 30, 2013
FUKUOKA, Japan — With declining enrollments at his junior college, Tokutaro Ushijima thinks he’s found one way to attract more students: pop idol training.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
May 24, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — A top North Korean general and confidant of Kim Jong Un met with a senior Chinese official in Beijing on Wednesday.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
May 22, 2013
FUKUOKA, Japan — When the Chinese smog arrives, the medical masks come in fashion. Every few months, this city of 1.5 million people in southern Japan, not far from mainland China, gets a dose of lung clogging courtesy of its neighbor.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
May 20, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — You’ll learn far more about what’s going on in North Korea when you leave the country, several former residents of the country have told GlobalPost.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
May 17, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — This week, a famous K-pop star in South Korea got all teary-eyed on television, talking about the 11 years she spent preparing for her career.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Apr 25, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — Some Americans are speculating on Twitter that North Korea masterminded the bombings in Boston, pointing out its timing after two months of militant rhetoric. Of course, all five South Koreans interviewed by GlobalPost over the past day expressed shock over the news and thought such a scenario was incredibly unlikely.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Apr 17, 2013
What to read next:
Geoffrey Cain on Investigative Journalism, Authoritarian Power, and The Perfect Police State | In a wide-ranging conversation with Jennifer Grossman, CEO of The Atlas Society, investigative journalist Geoffrey Cain reflects on years spent reporting inside some of the world’s most restrictive regimes — and on the research behind his book The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China’s Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future.
For years, Tim Cook insisted Apple could change China from the inside. Instead, China changed Apple.
The latest evidence? Apple spent billions developing cutting-edge electric vehicle battery technology with Chinese automaker BYD, only to watch its innovations become the cornerstone of BYD’s rise to global electric vehicle dominance. Apple walked away with nothing. China walked away with everything.
This isn’t just another story about corporate research and development gone wrong. It’s a cautionary tale about how even America’s most valuable company has become trapped in China’s web of technological control — and how that web is about to tighten even further.