NORTH KOREAN
REVIEW ONLINE
NORTH KOREAN STUDIES
EVENTS
Upcoming Events
※ Title: North Korean Goods Exhibition, North Korean Alcohol Tasting, and Cosmetics Experience
Host: The Korea Young Leaders Forum
Date: May 21, 2025 - July 4, 2025 (Curation Days are on June 7th at 4 PM and July 4th at 7PM)
Location: Lee Nayoung Bookstore (이나영책방), located near Sindaebang Station (서울 관악구 조원로 77 2층 202호)
Description:
The Korea Young Leaders Forum is holding a North Korean goods exhibition at Lee Nayoung Bookstore, located near Sindae bang Station. On curation days, you can taste Pyongyang Soju and Pyongyang Beer, try North Korean candies and snacks, and even apply North Korean-made basic cosmetics! They've prepared a wide variety of North Korean goods, and it's a fun event, especially on curation days when you can participate in hands-on experiences!
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※ Title: Voices from North Korea: Music & Talk
Host: Freedom Speakers International, Bradford University
Date: Saturday, June 14th, 2025, 17:00-19:00 GMT+1
Location: Korean Education Foundation | 108-110 Coombe Lane, London, SW20 0AY, United Kingdom
Sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/voices-from-north-korea-music-talk-tickets-1392261223799
Description:
North Korean refugee speakers will talk about their lives growing up in North Korea and their journeys to freedom, offering rare first-hand insights into life under and beyond the North Korean regime. The event also features a live classical guitar performance to complement the evening of reflection and dialogue.
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※ Title: Ready-Made Architecture and Urban Memory in Postwar North Korea
Host: Korea Europe Center
Date: Monday, June 16th, 2-25, 12:00-14:00 (CEST)
Location: Virtual
Sign up: https://fu-berlin.webex.com/weblink/register/r34ab0d96bbb8f79da297a2bfb8093ff5
Description:
The rebuilding of North Korea after the Korean War—centered on state authority and productive work culture—was distinctly represented by architecture of the quotidian kind. Architecture was divided into two interconnected types: monumental structures symbolizing the utopian vision of the state and vernacular structures instrumental to the regime of production in which the apartment was an exemplary form. North Korea’s architecture also exhibits the process of memory politics, in which the transnational history of urbanization was forgotten and rewritten under the nationalistic framework.
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※ Title: Asia Academy #20: 75 Years of Korean War: The Long Shadow
Host: Leiden Asia Center (LAC) Asia Academy
Date: Wednesday, June 19th, 2-25, 12:00-14:00 (CEST)
Location: Wijnhaven Turfmarkt 99 2511 DP The Hague (Room 3.54)
Description:
This June 25th marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War—a conflict that divided a nation and its people. How is this war remembered today? What are the differt perspectives from North and South Korea? And how do these narratives shape the current political climate in both the DPRK and the ROK? In this lecture, our speakers will explore post-war history and politics from both sides of the 38th parallel, followed by a Q&A session. The event will conclude with drinks to continue the discussion in an informal setting.
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※ Title: Korean War Commemorative Screening: Forbidden Fatherland
Host: Korean Cultural Centre UK
Date: Friday, June 25th at 18:00
Location: Korean Cultural Centre UK | Grand Buildings, 1 - 3 Strand, London WC2N 5BW (Main Entrance: Northumberland Avenue)
Description:
Forbidden Fatherland focuses on listening to memories, pain, and the lived experiences of those forced to leave their families behind. It gives voice to those who grew up with absent relatives, to families marked by the trauma of displacement, and to the enduring sense of longing that persists 75 years later. The filmmaker, Kim Lyang, is a documentary director and the founder of Zone Film Productions in Busan, Korea. Her work explores human resilience and the power to endure and create. Forbidden Fatherland was awarded Best International Documentary at the 8th New York Independent Cinema Awards. Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950, this programme is a moment of remembrance for the countless lives forever changed by the devastation of war.
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※ Title: Kyujanggak Book Talk #3: Locating North Korea in Communication Research
Host: Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies
Date: Thursday, June 26th at 10:00 AM (KST)
Location: Hybrid; Online via Zoom, In-person at SNU Kyujanggak (Bldg. 103), Room 444
Description:
Authors: Yong-Chan Kim (Yonsei University), Soomin Seo (Sogang University), Gabor Sebo (Palacky University)
Moderator: Joon Kium Kim (Seoul National University)
Discussant: Dal Yong Jin (Simon Fraser University)
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※ Title: From Liberation to Reunification: 80th Liberation Anniversary Concert
Host: Peaceful Unification Advisory Council
Date: Saturday, July 5th, 2025 at 16:00-21:00 GMT+1
Location: Kingston Guildhall, High Street, Kingston Upon Thames KT1 1EU
Description:
Join the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council for a special commemorative concert marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation. This meaningful evening will bring together voices from the South and North Korean communities, featuring professional musical performances, guest speakers, exhibitions, and a shared celebration of freedom and the hope for reunification.
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※ Title: Leaflets Across the Battlelines: Paper Propaganda in the Inter-Korean Psychological War
Host: Royal Asiatic Society Korea 한국왕립아시아학회
Date: Tuesday, July 8th, 2025, 19:20-20:50 (KST)
Location: Seoul Public Activities Center (SPAC, 서울시공익활동지원센터) | Located at Yongsan Verdium Friends #101 (용산베르디움프렌즈 101동) Basement Floor, 40 Baekbeomro 99-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
**Walk 2-3 minutes from ‘Exit 8’ of Samgakji Station (LINE 6 & 4) and take the elevator down to the B1 Floor.
Description:
For more than seventy years, printed leaflets have been one of the most persistent—and often perilous—tools in the contest for hearts and minds between North and South Korea. From Cold War-era air drops by airplane to modern balloon launches by South Korean civic groups, these slips of paper have carried urgent messages over barbed wire and beyond ideology. At times fiercely political and at others surprisingly playful—or even seductive—their goal has always been the same: to influence, to destabilize, to encourage defections, and to provoke doubt.
This presentation will explore the historical evolution of these propaganda leaflets, the technologies and tactics used to deliver them, and the shifting emotional tones and visual aesthetics embedded in their design. It will also examine how possession of a leaflet could invite arrest or worse on both sides of the DMZ, and why these small pieces of paper have evoked such fear and fascination. Drawing on rare and striking examples from both Koreas, Jacco Zwetsloot will reveal how leaflet campaigns became a battlefield in miniature—where paper, ink, and ideology collided in a high-stakes war of persuasion.
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※ Title: ECNK Online Workshop 2025 - Ethical Issues in North Korean Studies
Host: European Centre for North Korean Studies (ECNK)
Date: July 15-16th, 2025 (CEST 13:00–16:30 | Seoul: 20:00–23:30 | NYC: 07:00–10:30 on both days)
Location: Virtual
*For further information regarding the workshop and registration, please contact ECNK via email at info@ecnk.eu.
Description:
The workshop is designed to provide a forum for debate and experience-sharing, fostering a constructive dialogue between both junior and senior scholars on critical ethical questions related to research, funding, dissemination, and fieldwork. It comprises four panels. The participation is limited to fellows of our institution. An anonymized summary report of the workshop will be made publicly available.
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※ Title: "I am from North Korea" English Speech Contest
Host: Freedom Speakers International, Harvard University
Date: September 24th, 2025 from 10 a.m.
Location: Harvard Kennedy School, 79 John F Kennedy St, Cambridge, MA, US, 02138
Sign up: https://www.linkedin.com/events/iamfromnorthkorea-englishspeech7307709356874088449/
Description:
More details to come. Here’s a Vlog from FSI’s 19th contest at Harvard University in April 2024: https://youtu.be/4udStevg3ag?si=dhUwyG0bqLovMVlq.
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※ Title: "Korea: One Peninsula, Multiple Dimensions" (Connectivity, Challenges, Perspectives)
Host: Sofia University
Date: October 12~14th, 2025
Location: Hybrid; In-person at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Sofia, Bulgaria); Virtual via Zoom
Sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7elkcrxhigQ_NpLKyKPp5G-rS4hu0phltBZeQoaGmV2UhZw/viewform
*April 15~May 15 2025 via Google Form
Description:
Join us in exploring how marketization, decentralization, localization, and the expanded use of digital technology are reshaping everyday life – and state power – across North Korean cities. We invite contributions to examine whether North Korea’s panopticon-style surveillance and control mechanisms are in decline.
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※ Title: DPRK Cities Research Group, 3rd International Conference: The Withering Panopticon? Evidence from Everyday Life in North Korean Cities
Host: DPRK Cities Research Group, Soongsil Institute for Peace and Unification, Soongsil University
Date: November 20th, 2025 (Thursday)
Location: Soongsil Institute for Peace and Unification (Seoul, South Korea)
Sign up: https://www.linkedin.com/events/iamfromnorthkorea-englishspeech7307709356874088449/
Description:
Join us in exploring how marketization, decentralization, localization, and the expanded use of digital technology are reshaping everyday life – and state power – across North Korean cities. We invite contributions to examine whether North Korea’s panopticon-style surveillance and control mechanisms are in decline.