Beyond Caricatures: Writing about North Korea
A lunchtime roundtable debate with award-winning foreign correspondents, researchers and writers on the challenges of writing about North Korea today, from getting on the ground to turning to defectors for information about daily life inside the Hermit Kingdom. The panel’s distinguished speakers will share how they get beyond strangleholds on information to produce fiction and reportage about North Korea today.
Overview
In this era of information overload, one country remains an enigma, with its leadership maintaining a Stalinist hold over the flow of information: North Korea.
Five years after the death of Kim Jong Il and the rise of Kim Jong Un, it is harder than ever for foreign correspondents to get on the ground in Pyongyang, forcing them to be resourceful in conducting reliable reporting at a time when North Korea’s repeated provocations dominate the news. Feature films such as “The Interview” treat North Korea as a comedic backdrop, and documentaries on North Korea often rely on video taken surreptitiously on government-organized tours.
Please join the Wilson Center's Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy for a lunchtime roundtable debate with award-winning foreign correspondents, researchers and writers on the challenges of writing about North Korea today, from getting on the ground to turning to defectors for information about daily life inside the Hermit Kingdom. The panel’s distinguished speakers will share how they get beyond strangleholds on information to produce fiction and reportage about North Korea today.
Featured Panelists:
- Anna Fifield, Tokyo bureau chief, Washington Post
- Blaine Harden, author of The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot and Escape from Camp 14, and former Tokyo bureau chief for the Washington Post
- Krys Lee, author of How I Became a North Korean and Drifting House
- James Person, historian and coordinator, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy
- Moderated by Jean H. Lee, Global Fellow, Wilson Center, and former AP bureau chief in Seoul and Pyongyang
Event Agenda:
10:30 Registration Begins
11:00-11:10 Opening Remarks & Welcoming Address
11:10-12:15 1st Panel - Beyond the Propaganda: The Challenge of Covering North Korea as Foreign Correspondents
Moderator: Jean H. Lee
Panelists: Anna Fifield, Blaine Harden
12:15-13:00 Light Luncheon
13:00-14:00 2nd Panel - Building Characters, Not Caricatures: Fiction and Non-Fiction on North Korea Today
Moderator: Jean H. Lee
Panelists: Krys Lee, Blaine Harden, James Person
This NetKAL Public Policy Roundtable is hosted by the Wilson Center’s Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy, and sponsored by the Network for Korean American Leaders, the USC Center for Asian Pacific Leadership and the Korea Foundation.
A light lunch will be served. RSVP required.
Hosted By
Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy
The Center for Korean History and Public Policy was established in 2015 with the generous support of the Hyundai Motor Company and the Korea Foundation to provide a coherent, long-term platform for improving historical understanding of Korea and informing the public policy debate on the Korean peninsula in the United States and beyond. Read more
History and Public Policy Program
The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. Read more
Thank you for your interest in this event. Please send any feedback or questions to our Events staff.
