Understanding North Korea

How has North Korea been studied? How should or could it be studied? What holds North Korean society together despite the manifold challenges it faces?  What ideas define and sustain the North Korean society? This course explores various existing approaches to understanding North Korea. Drawing from historical, cultural, and IR/security perspectives, the course explores how the North Korean state has been studied and debated by scholars and policy makers, paying close attention to North Korean statecraft, power, culture, ideas and their consequences, both domestic and international.  Drawing widely from North Korean publications, archival documents, oral history, interviews, works of literature, film, and other primary and secondary sources on North Korea, students will examine the strengths and limits of existing approaches. The course will aim to provide tools for students to be able better to contextualize North Korea's history, politics, economy and society in the shifting global order.