SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Un has had a wild and crazy 2014. He rang in the New Year with rumors (later retracted) that his executed uncle had been “stripped naked, thrown into a cage, and eaten alive by a pack of ravenous dogs.”
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Dec 2, 2014
SEOUL, South Korea — In North Korea, Americans caught committing mere peccadilloes — offenses that aren’t even crimes elsewhere — can expect little mercy from Kim Jong Un’s regime.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Nov 26, 2014
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in January. US officials announced today that Kenneth Bae has been released by North Korea and is returning home. You can read about his surprise release here.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Nov 8, 2014
SEOUL, South Korea — In 2009, American minister Robert Park crossed into North Korea to protest what he called a “genocide” in the country’s six prison camps. Of course, the regime detained and later released him, making him one of six Americans held in North Korea in recent years.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 16, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — Ever since his arrest in North Korea 11 months ago, the world has feared the fate of Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 11, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — It’s not every day that 47 Western bikers can ride through the world’s most reclusive state. Yet as part of a race that began in China, athletes zipped through North Korea’s port town of Rajin this week, Reuters reports. Traffic was blocked off, and the cyclists given an unusual stint of freedom to move around the area. (Not that there’s much traffic in North Korea anyway.)
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Sep 27, 2013
Editor’s update: The US government on Monday urged North Korea to free US citizen Kenneth Bae on “humanitarian grounds” as it sought to pin down the charges against him.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Apr 29, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — It’s been a mixed week for North Korea. The country reportedly moved mid-range Musudan missiles away from a launch site at the east coast, a possible sign that leaders won’t test a rocket as feared. But the Supreme Court also sentenced Korean-American Kenneth Bae, who NK News says was an undercover missionary, to 15 years of hard labor.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Mar 7, 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.