IN FEBRUARY 1951, New York Times correspondent George Barrett, traveling with an American armored column, stumbled on the ghostly remains of a Korean hamlet that had been bombed out by US aircraft.
By Geoffrey Cain
Los Angeles Review of Books
May 11, 2015
SEOUL, South Korea — Is the sun setting on the brotherly bond between North Korea and its biggest patron, China?
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 10, 2015
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
CHEORWON, South Korea — Bill Clinton called the heavily armed demilitarized zone here “the scariest place on Earth.” It is at this border between North and South that the legacy of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War — which never resulted in a peace treaty — remains tense. It’s the tangible remnant of a “forgotten war” in which more than 2 million civilians died.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 22, 2014
INCHEON, South Korea — Standing in front of a cluttered, rowdy classroom of about a hundred adolescents, North Korean defector Kim Su-ryeon, 25, kicks off her presentation with a pop quiz.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Sep 24, 2014
UIJEONGBU, South Korea — Growing up in hardship in this once-poor Cold War outpost, the young Kim Kyeong-sun decades ago met a job recruiter who promised her housing and a paycheck to support her family.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Sep 11, 2014
For a glimpse into life in North Korea, take a peek into the country’s math textbooks. “During the Fatherland Liberation War [North Korea’s official name for the Korean War] the brave uncles of Korean People’s Army killed 265 American Imperial bastards in the first battle,” reads one question.
By Geoffrey Cain
The Christian Science Monitor
May 10, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — I’m now reading an advance copy of Andrei Lankov’s upcoming book, “The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia,” due out from Oxford University Press on May 8.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Apr 24, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — April 25 is something of a holy day for the North Korean leadership. It marks the founding of the guerrilla army in 1932 that they — often romantically — claim valiantly fought off Japanese colonials and saved the Korean race from slavery. (In reality, the army played a minor role.)
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Apr 24, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — Well, we don’t really know the answer. Last time there was a Korean War from 1950 to 1953, some historians say it nearly did go nuclear — although there’s disagreement over the extent President Harry Truman was willing to consider the Bomb based on vague public statements.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Apr 11, 2013
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Geoffrey Cain Jennifer Grossman The Atlas Society Geoffrey Cain is an investigative journalist and author of The Perfect Police State: An Undercover
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