Turning Back the Clock: Attempts to Reclaim Control in North Korea after 2004

The 1994-2004 period in North Korean can be seen as a time of de-Stalinization from below. In spite of  the government's unwillingness to introduce meaningful reforms, the hyper-Stalinist system slowly disintegrated. However, recent events clearly indicate that since 2004, the North Korean government has been trying to re-establish control over society and reverse the changes that happened in the decade after Kim Il Sung's death.

On February 11, 2009, the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and Brookings CNAPS will host a lecture by Andrei Lankov, noted Korean historian and Associate Professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, regarding these North Korean policy changes from 2004 to the present.

 Download the event transcript here.

Andrei Lankov, a historian of Korea is an associate professor at Kookmin University in Seoul. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees at Leningrad State University and attended Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea. He has also taught at Leningrad State University and Australian National University. Lankov is the author of many books in English, Korean, and Russian, including From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945-1960; Crisis in North Korea: The Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956; North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea; and The Dawn of Modern Korea. Among his most recent articles is "Staying Alive: Why North Korea Will Not Change," which appeared in the March/April 2008 edition of Foreign Affairs. He is also a columnist for the Chosun Ilbo and the Korea Times in South Korea.