Writing
East Asia’s flawless fruit fetish
SEOUL, South Korea — Some melons are so pricey that even thieves target them. In Japan and, to a lesser extent, South Korea, fruit fuels a lucrative boutique business. Shops sell only the best hand-picked “designer fruits”— free from blemishes and spoil.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Nov 16, 2013
Those ‘fake’ North Korean ICBMs may actually be able to reach Seattle
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is the butt of many jokes. Its military parades, for one, offer an eclectic mix of the clownish and terrifying. With blocks of goose-stepping soldiers in Soviet-style uniforms, tanks in formation, and a pudgy young dictator looking on, the scene is fitting for a cheesy 1960s propaganda broadcast — or even the next Austin Powers movie.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Nov 10, 2013
The Kate Middleton of North Korea: Meet Kim Jong Un’s wife
SEOUL, South Korea — In American and South Korean tabloids, the wife of the North Korean dictator has achieved an unusual degree of celebrity.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 30, 2013
Will Asia’s economies benefit from fracking?
DAEGU, South Korea — For the past three years, the US has gone full force into its much-headlined fracking revolution, capitalizing on technological innovations to tap into enormous newly-exploitable reserves of oil and natural gas.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 25, 2013
Propaganda balloons carry rumors of a North Korean porno
SEOUL, South Korea — For more than 60 years, North and South Korea have been divided along the demilitarized zone, or the DMZ. Barriers — political, legal and physical — often prevent South Koreans from communicating directly with their northern brethren.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 19, 2013
Did North Korea really kill off 20,000 political prisoners? (VIDEO)
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
Kenneth Bae’s mother visits son in North Korean hospital
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
Wanna do business in North Korea? Good luck!
SEOUL, South Korea — For foreign investors, North Korea has long been akin to a dark, forbidden outpost in a distant galaxy.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 10, 2013
North Korea threatens a ‘terrible disaster’
It’s almost an age-old tradition: North Korea gets upset over a joint military exercise between the US and South Korea, and vents its anger in a couple vague war threats.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 8, 2013
North Korea appears to be making weapons-grade plutonium again. Should we be scared?
SEOUL, South Korea — Earlier this year, North Korea tested its third underground nuclear device and then launched a flurry of war threats against the US and South Korea. The three months of tensions, from January to April 2013, are often called the “2013 North Korea crisis.”
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Oct 5, 2013