SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea, as usual, looks menacing, but can’t seem to keep its black ops under wraps. On Wednesday, Cuba came forward as the culprit behind a stash of weapons bound for North Korea. Panamanian authorities uncovered the illicit cargo last week—hidden in a shipment of brown sugar.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jul 17, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — It started out as an airline tragedy. Then it grew into a racially charged row. On Monday, Asiana Airlines announced it will sue a San Francisco television broadcaster for defamation — after a news anchor unknowingly read a distasteful ethnic joke on air, thinking it was a major scoop.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jul 16, 2013
KYOTO, Japan — Natsuki Ohshima, 24, has found a gem. Straight out of college, he has scored a professional job as a corporate recruiter. His generation, born in the 1980s, has grown up in the midst of economic stagnation lasting two decades. So even he admits that landing a corporate job at such a young age is unusual.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jul 12, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — On Tuesday, a Chinese artist made headlines when he offered North Korea its very own wax figure of the deceased dictator, Kim Jong Il It’s a nod to the hermit state’s ruling family. The Dear Leader, as he’s called, is the father of the current head, Kim Jong Un.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jul 11, 2013
SEOUL — There’s no question that China and South Korea are uneasy neighbors. Over the years, relations have been tense over issues like North Korea’s nuclear program, and illegal Chinese fishing in South Korean waters, to name a few.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 28, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — If there’s one key art form where North Korea beats the South, it’s beer-making. Pyongyang is home to Taedonggang, a government-made, full-bodied lager that The New York Times called one of the finest beers on the Korean peninsula. The beverage is named after Pyongyang’s Taedong River.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 27, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — If North Korea’s government had its way, the world would know nothing about what really happens within the country’s borders. Journalism is essentially forbidden. Those who dare ask hard questions do so at the risk of torture and imprisonment.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 21, 2013
In a workshop a few minutes away from the sprawl of downtown Kyoto, a young man walks up and down aisles of steaming vats filled with a soya milk mixture.
By Geoffrey Cain
South China Morning Post
Jun 21, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — This week, it’s not North Korea or Zimbabwe resisting a call for justice from the United Nations. Rather, it is East Asia’s wealthiest and oldest democracy: Japan.
By Geoffrey Cain
Anchorage Daily News
Jun 21, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s founding father, Kim Il Sung, and his son and successor, Kim Jong Il, both wanted to banish nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula, a North Korean diplomat claimed Wednesday as he renewed his government’s call for international talks.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 20, 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.