North Korea Research Group

Radio Free Asia reporter Kim Gye-young recent sat down with current NKRG Presidents Alan Ho and Christopher LaRoche, and former NKRG President and co-founder Sang Ik Song, for a chat about NKRG's past, present and future activities.

Read the story here: part 1, part 2 (in Korean).

Christopher LaRoche, co-president of the North Korea Research Group, was interviewed by CTV's Canada AM on 3 June 2009 regarding recent news of succession in North Korea.

Highly speculative and difficult to verify, it is nonetheless a subject matter of great importance. For a quick academic read on the subject matter, a good synopsis can be found on the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES) Forum, by Prof. Kap-sik Kim (External Link).

It's quite an interesting time to be studying North Korea to say the least. With the actions of North Korea and so much information in the news, it has been quite difficult to wade through all the analysis, speculation, and rumour surrounding everything from succession to nuclear proliferation. A lot of the analysis speak of China's role in this international issue. Whether one believes China has a significant, but difficult role to play in this affair is up to different shades of interpretation, however the NKRG thought it would be interesting to find out what some Chinese students in Beijing thought of the matter.