SEOUL – Since February, English-language discourse has been dominated by well-known talking heads trying to make sense of the “crisis” on the Korean peninsula, often leaving out a critical voice of Korean expertise.

Over a series of exclusive interviews, NK News spoke to three leading North Korea experts based in Seoul, to find out the South Korean perspective on Kaesong, inter-Korean relations, and the Kenneth Bae case.

NK Newsbegan by interviewing Dr. Chan-il Ahn, Director of the World Institute for North Korea Studies. Ahn left North Korea in 1979 and was the first North Korean defector to obtain a doctoral