Global Spin previews this month’s upcoming polls around the world
North Korea
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 27, 2012
Life After Chávez – The Economist examines splits emerging in Venezuela’s ruling United Socialist Party as the president undergoes more cancer treatment. “The fissures in the ruling party show only too clearly what is likely to …
At Nuclear Summit, Obama Faces Prospect of a North Korean Deal Gone Bad
Last month, North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong Un showed he has his father’s ability to cut a deal. Does he also have Kim Jong Il’s habit of breaking them? That is one of the many questions President Obama will face as he visits …
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 19, 2012
Korean Quagmire – Following negative reaction to North Korea’s planned satellite launch, China’s Communist Party-linked Global Times defends Beijing’s approach towards Pyongyang — under the headline “Why China Can’t Persuade …
Must-Reads From Around the World: March 8, 2012
Nuclear North Korea — Based on newly released satellite images, the Washington-based Institute of Science and International Security says North Korea has made progress in building a light-water reactor to expand its nuclear program, The Guardian reports. (North Korea says the reactor is for electricity generation.) This information …
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 1, 2012
The Lady – Exiled Burmese media the Irrawaddy analyzes Aung San Suu Kyi’s prospects for a cabinet post after by-elections on April 1, mooting the health or education portfolios. “Both would be a good fit—she has often …
In Exchange for Food, North Korea Says it Will Halt Nuclear Activities
When Glyn Davies, the the U.S. special representative for North Korean policy, left Beijing last week after two days of talks with North Korean envoys, he would only say their discussions produced “a little bit of progress” but …
U.S.-North Korea Talks Yield a “Bit of Progress,” but Little Hope for Refugees
A U.S. envoy said two days of meetings in Beijing with North Korean representatives, the first since the death of dictator Kim Jong Il in December, have yielded “a little bit of progress.” But any optimism about resuming talks on …
Kim Jong Un Gets Thumbs-Up from North Koreans in Japan
When Kim Jong Un was declared heir apparent of North Korea in December, Choe Kwan Ik was probably one of the few people in Tokyo who knew who the kid was. As Bill Powell writes in this week’s story “Meet Kim Jong Un,” (available …
This Is What Propaganda Looks Like: the Kim Jong Un Show
I don’t speak Korean. But you don’t really need to understand it to figure out what’s going on in this North Korean “documentary” eulogizing the new top man in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un. In fact, given the grating style of its female narrator — who rapturously quivers and exclaims through the hour-long segment like a …
The Wailing Heard Round the World: North Korea’s Grief Hits the Web
Today, as images from the funeral of the late Kim Jong Il go out around the world, North Korean official media delivered what has to be one of the most surreal and widely witnessed pieces of state theater ever created. Set …
Why U.S.-China Strategic Competition Is Unlikely to Help Manage North Korea’s Transition
The growing geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China makes prospects for productive partnership in managing North Korea much less likely
Writing for Commies: 7 Tips from Kim Jong Il’s 1986 Treatise on Literature
Want to write like the Dear Leader? Here’s how.