UHM Asian Studies alumnus Robert York (MA, 2014) has been published in the Fall 2025 issue of the Journal for East Asian Affairs.
The abstract for his article, "Besieged by Imperialists: North Korea's State Media in English, 1998-2003", is as follows: "Outside observers may find North Korea’s English-language state media, such as the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), easy to dismiss due to its exaggerated declarations, obvious falsehoods, and mundane content designed to promote the regime’s accomplishments to an unclear audience. However, a careful reading of its content reveals that the English-language content, the KCNA in particular, serves a role of promoting the regime’s foreign and inter-Korean policies, especially when a change of approach is underway. This study evaluates the KCNA’s content during the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) in South Korea, particularly ahead of the policy shifts that led to the inter-Korean summit of 2000, the Japan-North Korea summit of 2002, and the withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in early 2003. It reveals that the KCNA prepared for each of these events through an influx of content justifying these changes, including by attempting to demonstrate international support for them. In this way, the KCNA can be said to function as the justification mechanism for North Korea’s decisions of international import, including foreign and interKorean policies."
This article can be found for free here: https://www.inss.re.kr/common/viewer.do?atchFileId=F20251107105455269&fileSn=0