Professional Affiliation

Professor of History at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea

Expert Bio

Andrei Lankov was born 26 July 1963 in Leningrad (now Petersburg). He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Leningrad State University (PhD in 1989). In 1996-2004 he  taught Korean history at the Australian National University, and since 2004 he teaches at Kookmin University in 2004, Seoul (currently a professor at the College of Social Studies), and also director of Korearisk.com group.

His major research interest is North Korean history and society. His major English language publications on North Korea include: From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945-1960 (Rutgers University Press, 2003); Crisis in North Korea: The Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956 (University of Hawaii Press, 2004), North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea (McFarland and Company, 2007), The Real North Korea (Oxford University Press, 2013). He contributed to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Newsweek, and published a number of academic articles, including two articles in Foreign Affairs and an article in the Foreign Policy. In 2017 Foreign Policy magazine included him into the list of "Global Thinkers."  He also writes extensively in Korean and Russian.

 

Wilson Center Project

North Korea History: Soviet Advisers in North Korea 1945-62

Project Summary

A study of captured North Korean documents, housed in the National Archives, providing insight into the inner-workings of the North Korean administration and the history of its formative years (1945-50). Dr. Lankov’s study made particular note of the Russian-language materials, finding reports of trade missions, economic policy and notes on the currency reform, documents on transnational corporations, and battle orders for the North Krean Army.