December 06, 2023

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Benjamin R. Young

Benjamin R. Young

Benjamin R. Young is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). He is the author of Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World (Stanford University Press, 2021). He received his Ph.D. from The George Washington University in 2018. He has previously taught at the U.S. Naval War College and Dakota State University. He has published peer-reviewed articles on North Korean history and politics in a number of scholarly journals and is a regular contributor to NK News.

Analysis

White Juche: How North Korea captured the imagination of the global far right

White nationalists and neo-Nazis have held up DPRK as model of racial purity and autarky, despite its Marxist trappings

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungNovember 13, 2023
Analysis

How North Korean propaganda remembers the genocide of Native Americans

Kim regime holds up America’s sins to paint US as incorrigible colonizer and deflect from its own human rights abuses

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungMay 1, 2023
Analysis

The Ukraine war has drawn North Korea back into Moscow’s political orbit

Pyongyang has offered vocal and material support for Russia’s invasion and stands to gain as conflict enters second year

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungFebruary 22, 2023
Analysis

How North Korea’s revival of communism goes hand in hand with ultranationalism

Uptick in communist rhetoric during pandemic highlights peculiar ideological mix regime uses to stay in power

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungJune 15, 2022
Opinion

After Ukraine, it’s time to take North Korea’s reunification aims seriously

Few expected Russia to invade. Now the world must prepare for the day DPRK too presses its land claims over South Korea

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungMarch 17, 2022
Analysis

North Korea’s got 99 problems and rural development is one

2022 focus on agriculture reflects both growing food insecurity and Maoist-inspired efforts to improve countryside life

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungFebruary 4, 2022
Analysis

The North Korean studio that has animated a Christmas film and Italian cartoons

Newly sanctioned SEK Studio has worked with South Korean and European artists for decades, raising money for Pyongyang

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungJanuary 19, 2022
Analysis

North Korea’s vital role as a Cold War training ground for global terrorists

The country's designation as a state sponsor of terror is a well-deserved moniker stretching back decades

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungDecember 28, 2021
Opinion

Film review: The problem with inter-Korean rivalry in ‘Escape from Mogadishu’

Box office hits glosses over North Korea’s complex history in Third World and is riddled with stereotypes about Africa

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungDecember 14, 2021
Analysis

North Korean capitalism’s failure in the Third World

Pyongyang mixed economics and politics as it competed with Seoul and sought new trade partners in the Global South

Benjamin R. YoungBenjamin R. YoungDecember 2, 2021
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