In this era of information overload, one country remains an enigma, with its leadership maintaining a Stalinist hold over the flow of information: North Korea.
Five years after the death of Kim Jong Il and the rise of Kim Jong Un, it is harder than ever for foreign correspondents to get on the ground in Pyongyang, forcing them to be resourceful in conducting reliable reporting at a time when North Korea’s repeated provocations dominate the news. Feature films such as “The Interview” treat North Korea as a comedic backdrop, and documentaries on North Korea often rely on video taken surreptitiously on government-organized tours.
Please join the Wilson Center's Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy for a lunchtime roundtable debate with award-winning foreign correspondents, researchers and writers on the challenges of writing about North Korea today, from getting on the ground to turning to defectors for information about daily life inside the Hermit Kingdom. The panel’s distinguished speakers will share how they get beyond strangleholds on information to produce fiction and reportage about North Korea today.
Featured Panelists:
- Anna Fifield, Tokyo bureau chief, Washington Post
- Blaine Harden, author of The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot and Escape from Camp 14, and former Tokyo bureau chief for the Washington Post
- Krys Lee, author of How I Became a North Korean and Drifting House
- James Person, historian and coordinator, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy
- Moderated by Jean H. Lee, Global Fellow, Wilson Center, and former AP bureau chief in Seoul and Pyongyang
Leading U.S. experts and former officials to identify actionable policy steps the White House and Congress should take to address the growing threat from North Korea.