Writing
North Korean defectors think Dennis Rodman looks like an alien
SEOUL, South Korea — It is day three of Dennis Rodman’s surprise visit to North Korea, where today he became the first American to meet Kim Jong Un.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 28, 2013
Plastic surgery, ‘Gangnam-style’
SEOUL, South Korea — A crowd of young women wait nervously in the lobby of a popular plastic surgery clinic in Apgujeong, the affluent neighborhood at the heart of Gangnam. Photographs of Korean pop singers and actresses line the walls, winsome customers who smile next to their cosmetic surgeons.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 26, 2013
South Korea: A president and a peninsula divided
GWANGJU, South Korea — It is a chilly day in Gwangju, the cradle of South Korea’s political left, and home to what was once a boisterous democracy movement that fought military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 25, 2013
Korean food made me cry like a baby
SEOUL, South Korea — On a frigid winter evening in Seoul, a college student raced out of a popular bistro and vomited near my feet. The owner, Im Choo-sung, followed him out the door. “Would the kids please throw up in the bathroom?” he announced. “The neighbors get angry at all this.”
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 24, 2013
South Korea calls for development of nuclear weapons
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean lawmakers from the Saenuri Party, the country’s conservative ruling party, stepped up their battle cry at the National Assembly this week: It’s time for South Korea to man up and make its own nuclear weapons, they said.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 21, 2013
Kim Jong Un in the shadow of the Dear Leader?
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
Cambodia: Sihanouk’s love affair with North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered today for the cremation of Cambodia’s colorful king-father, Norodom Sihanouk, at 5 p.m., bidding their final farewells.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 4, 2013
What to make of North Korea’s war threats
SEOUL, South Korea — “We should settle accounts with the United States only with the gun barrel, not with words, as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival.”
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 2, 2013
South Korea goes to space
SEOUL, South Korea — It’s official: the hyper-wired tech center of Asia, South Korea, has joined the global space club, just weeks after its isolated archrival North Korea accomplished the same.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jan 30, 2013
Love across the DMZ: Matchmaking, North Korea-style
SEOUL, South Korea — Four years ago, Kim Eun-seo, 40, fled political persecution and poverty in North Korea’s gritty far-north city, Chongjin.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jan 24, 2013