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.
Despite official claims, early DPRK history was not marked by radical change to the status quo
The U.S. should take note that Kim Jong Un can literally change the time on a subjective — or political — whim
North's personality cult, state media controls have charmed dictators for decades
Pompeo last month used a unusual euphemism when discussing a deal with Pyongyang
Many have posited that it is not really Kim Jong Un who is pulling the strings
The city-state's history of ties to Pyongyang make it a fitting site for the Kim-Trump summit
Changing Beltway consensus on why Pyongyang seeks nukes has major implications for U.S. policy
DPRK backing for an ultra-leftist insurgency in 1971 ended in the expulsion of their diplomats
The tragic case of Otto Warmbier confirms that the DPRK cannot be changed through tourism
The treatment of Otto Warmbier brings to mind the brutality of the DPRK's past
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