North Korea Is Not Vietnam
March 9, 2020
Expecting the brutally repressive state to liberalize magically the way Vietnam did is a pipe dream.
By Geoffrey Cain
The New Republic
Feb 28, 2019
Expecting the brutally repressive state to liberalize magically the way Vietnam did is a pipe dream.
By Geoffrey Cain
The New Republic
Feb 28, 2019
SEOUL, South Korea — The news today that North Korea removed Jang Sung Taek, the powerful uncle of Kim Jong Un and vice chair of the body that heads the military, could amount to the boy dictator’s greatest leadership shake-up yet.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Dec 3, 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 — When North and South Korea hold talks in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday, top of the agenda is whether to reopen the suspended Kaesong Industrial Complex.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jun 11, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has said it plans to reopen its nuclear facilities — a move that would likely serve to further unnerve the country’s foes in the region and Washington.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Apr 2, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — From both sides of the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s first female president, Park Geun-hye, has gotten a baptism by fire since she took office on Feb. 25.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Mar 16, 2013
SEOUL — Now that Dennis Rodman is home, how many Washington policymakers are bitter that they didn’t get to be the first American to meet Kim Jong-un?
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Mar 7, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — He was once thought to be a Swiss-educated cosmopolitan taking the side of reform in North Korea. But some say Tuesday’s nuclear test has squandered hopes that Kim Jong Un will open the militarized nation to the world.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 15, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans assumed that Lee Kun-hee was the equivalent of royalty, an untouchable oligarch at the helm of one of the world’s largest companies, the Samsung Group.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Dec 18, 2012
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.