"A New Korean War?" at Church of the Redeemer in Squirrel Hill, February 18.

The Church of the Redeemer in Squirrel Hill will host a Korea Panel on the topic of "A New Korean War?" on Sunday, February 18. From the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for International Studies:

Tensions are heating up over North Korea's nuclear program, intensified by an exchange of insults between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Will the conflict between the two countries result in war? Why does North Korea want nuclear weapons? For aggression? Or for self-defense? Do South Koreans regard a nuclearized North as an existential threat or as something they can live with? How would a new Korean War end?

The event runs from 2:00 to 4:00 pm and is free and open to the public. The Church of the Redeemer is located at 5700 Forbes Ave. (map).

"No war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea!" November 18 in Oakland.

The Pittsburgh Anti-Imperialist League will host Derek Ford of Depauw University for "No war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea!" on November 18.

Join a discussion on the origins of the current crisis and the movement against a new war by the US empire against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK.

Our speaker Derek Ford, assistant professor at DePauw University, has recently returned from DPRK in August 2017 as an organizer of the latest "Korea Peace Tour", the last civilian tour to DPRK before the travel ban by the Trump regime went into effect. In 2016, Mr. Ford also travelled to South Korea representing the ANSWER Coalition as he participated in the International Forum on Peace and Reunification, visited political prisoners and held meetings with progressive organizations, and joined in several protests and actions.

The Trump regime has consistenly engaged in dangerous escalations in Korea, risking re-opening the Korean War. Such a war would risk millions of lives across Asia while sending many poor and working people in the US to do the killing and dying for the US capitalist class.

The event runs from 3:30 to 5:30 pm in the Barco Law Building (room 111) at the University of Pittsburgh (map), and is free and open to the public.

Ambassador Gheewhan Kim and "Challenges in the Korean Peninsula: Nuclear, Trade and Economics", April 7 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Consul General of the Republic of Korea in New York Gheewhan Kim and his talk "Challenges in the Korean Peninsula: Nuclear, Trade and Economics" on April 7.

The Korean Peninsula currently faces many challenges. The biggest challenge is North Korea's continued development of nuclear and missile programs--ever-increasing threat not only to South Korea and its neighbors, but also the United States. In response, the United States and Korea agreed to deploy a missile defense system in South Korea. Opposing this alliance decision, China is taking a series of retaliatory measures against South Korea in trade, cultural exchanges, tourism, etc.

The sudden US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and growing nationalist sentiment has been increasing economic uncertainties in the Asia-Pacific region. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. What is a fair assessment of this agreement in terms of our common goals of economic growth and job creation?

The talk begins at 12:00 pm in the English Room (room number 144) on the first floor of the Cathedral of Learning (map). It is free and open to the public.

Stephan Haggard and "Hard Target: Dealing with North Korea" at Pitt, March 14.

Advance notice for a talk on North Korea at the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center with Dr. Stephan Haggard of UC San Diego.

North Korea poses a number of challenges to the new Trump administration, from its nuclear and missile programs to the possibility of political instability. Diplomacy with North Korea is further complicated by pressing humanitarian and human rights questions and the complexities of dealing with China as a partner in negotiations with North Korea. How has the US dealt with North Korea in the past and is there a different way forward?

The talk will be held from 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

North Korean Film Festival at Pitt, November 18 and 19.

Program of events for Friday, November 18.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host a North Korean Film Festival on November 18 and 19. On Friday the 18th, the films An Emissary Unreturned and Bulgasari will play in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium (map) at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm, respectively. On Friday the 19, Flower Girl will play at 2:00 and Fate of Kum Hui and Un Hui will play in Auditorium A of the University Club (map).

An Emissary Unreturned and Pulgasari will comprise a Shin Song-ok and North Korean Cinema program with Princeton University's Steven Chung on Friday the 18th, while Flower Girl and Fate of Kum Hui and Un Hui will comprise a North Korean Cinema and China in the Cultural Revolution Era program.

North Korean film festival at Pitt, November 18 and 19.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present a North Korean film festival on November 18 and 19 at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium and the University Club. The four films tentatively scheduled are: An Emissary Unreturned (돌아오지 않은 밀사), Fate of Kum Hui and Un Hui (금희와 은희의 운명), Flower Girl (꽃파는 처녀), and Pulgasari (불가사리).

Talking About Asia - Rediscovering the War: Post-Division Imagination in Recent Division Films, October 21 at Pitt.

On October 21, the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Seung-hwan Shin and his Talking About Asia presentation, "Talking About Asia - Rediscovering the War: Post-Division Imagination in Recent Division Film".

Did you know the local "In God We Trust" politician wrote an insightful book on North Korea?

State representative Richard Saccone is in the news again for his quest to put "In God We Trust" in American classrooms. The Saint Vincent College professor and Pittsburgh native has been on this mission since 2013, he is best known to this site for his 2006 book Living With The Enemy about his year living and working in North Korea (which followed 13 years in South Korea). The title is facetious, and it's a book on the country that, uncommonly for the genre, provides insight without being judgmental or condescending. "My intention is for the reader", he writes on page 8,

to come away with a better understanding of the people of North Korea. My experience confirmed the most effective way to deal with North Koreans is to suspend our preconceived judgment for a moment and attempt to think as they do, to understand their perspective more clearly.

The Propaganda Game, Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫) at CMU International Film Festival, March 24 and 26.

The CMU International Film Festival recently announced the schedule for its 2016 iteration, with two movies of special interest to this site: 2014's The Propaganda Game and the 2015 Chinese film Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫).

The Propaganda Game, Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫) at CMU International Film Festival in March.

The CMU International Film Festival recently announced the schedule for its 2016 iteration, with two movies of special interest to this site: 2014's The Propaganda Game and the 2015 Chinese film Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫).

Korean film Joint Security Area (공동경비구역 JSA) at Pitt, March 20.

The University of Pittsburgh chapter of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) will present the 2000 Korean movie Joint Security Area (공동경비구역 JSA) on Friday, March 20. The movie stars Kang Song-ho (The Host, Secret Sunshine), Lee Young-ae (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, TV drama Jewel in the Palace), and Lee Byung-hun (All In, G.I. Joe series), and was the highest-grossing Korean film of all time until the following year. A 2005 New York Times review writes of the movie:

Set in a particularly tense area of the demilitarized zone between the Koreas, it is a fairly straightforward whodunit with a pointedly political theme and an unapologetically humanist message. Major Jean (Lee Yeong-ae), who grew up in Switzerland, comes to South Korea, her father's homeland, to investigate an incident that took place inside the Joint Security Area, administered by Swedish and Swiss peacekeepers.

Collecting depositions from both sides, she encounters two predictably opposed accounts of the shooting, which left two North Korean soldiers dead. Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byeong-heon), the South Korean officer who has admitted to the shooting, says he shot his way out of an attempted kidnapping. The Northerners insist it was an unprovoked attack. With the specter of nuclear hostilities hovering, Major Jean's investigation is a lot more than routine police work.

And "Joint Security" itself departs from routine as the real story behind the skirmish emerges in a series of long, cleanly filmed flashbacks.

The movie starts at 7:00 pm in room G8 of the Cathedral of Learning (campus map). The event is open to the public, and tickets range from $1 to $5.

"Modern Times in North Korea: Scenes from the Founding Years" at Pitt, February 13.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Suzy Kim of Rutgers University and her talk "Modern Times in North Korea: Scenes from the Founding Years" at the University of Pittsburgh on February 13, the first in the center's Worlding Korea series. The synopsis:

North Korea is often portrayed in mainstream media as a backward place, a Stalinist relic without a history worth knowing. But during its founding years (1945-1950), North Korea experienced a radical social revolution when everyday life became the primary site of political struggle, including quite deliberately a feminist agenda. With historical comparisons to revolutions in the early 20th century, Suzy Kim introduces her book through rarely seen archival photos, situating the North Korean revolution within the broader history of modernity.

It will be held in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map) from 3:00, and is free and open to the public.

IUP's 2014 Foreign Film Festival begins February 9, includes one Chinese-Korean film.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania announced today its lineup for the 2014 Foreign Film Festival, which begins on February 9. A movie of relevance to this blog won't show until April 27, with Dooman River (두만강). From The Global Film Initiative:

Writer-director Zhang Lu’s fascinating window into a rarely seen corner of rural China revolves around 12-year-old Chang-ho, living with his grandfather and mute sister along the frozen river-border with North Korea. Although fraught with unemployment and other tensions, his community seems sympathetic toward the Korean refugees fleeing famine and misery; Chang-ho even bonds over soccer with one young border-crosser who comes scavenging food for a sibling. But he soon turns on his new friend as suspicions mount against the illegal immigrants and his sister reels from unexpected aggression, provoking a quandary over his loyalties in an exquisitely detailed story of compassion and strife across an uneasy geopolitical border.

IUP's festival website has not been updated yet with movie profiles and correct dates, but films will be shown in McVitty Auditorium, Sprowls Hall (campus map) and are free and open to the public.

Free candy for Kim Jong-un's birthday, January 8.

Conflict Kitchen will be handing out free candy tomorrow, January 8, for Kim Jong-un's birthday.

On Wednesday we will be handing out the same free candy that Kim Jong-Un is giving (in an insidious annual practice) to children throughout North Korea to celebrate his birthday.

Text as it appears on the candy insert:

세상에 부럼없어라
“NOTHING IN THE WORLD TO ENVY”

More at the Conflict Kitchen blog post. Conflict Kitchen is located in Oakland (map) and is "a restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict".

Conflict Kitchen in the Korea Times.

Conflict Kitchen, located in Oakland (map) and "a restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict", is the subject of a lengthy profile in the Korea Times.

In an interview with The Korea Times at a coffee shop in Hongdae, Seoul, Weleski explained why North Korea was an obvious choice for Conflict Kitchen.

“Our only interest is for people to create a space for them to be curious and to develop their own opinions,” she said.

“Initially, the restaurant was conceived to be a North Korean and South Korean restaurant. We wanted to talk about the conflict between the two nations and also the relationship that the U.S. has with the conflict between the two nations ... (To prepare for the project), we shopped in the market with North Korean defectors and cooked with them.”

Earlier in the month Conflict Kitchen was profiled in the Korean-language 서울신문 (Seoul Shinmun). The restaurant is closed through January 5th.

Documentary Danny from North Korea at Duquesne University, December 7.

Students for Human Rights will present the Liberty in North Korea documentary Danny from North Korea at Duquesne University on Saturday, December 7. LiNK describes the subject of their film thus:

Every year thousands of North Koreans make the dangerous journey across the border to escape oppression and poverty.

In March of 2005, Danny was one of them. Danny crossed into China and escaped a life of indoctrination, routine public executions, and starvation. As Danny traveled, he saw a world he never knew existed. A world where movement was not monitored by the government, information was readily available, and most importantly at the time, there was enough food to fill his empty belly.

The film is free and starts at 7:00 pm in room 105 College Hall (map). Those not attending can watch it on the Liberty in North Korea website.

Living with the Enemy author in the news.

Local state representative Richard Saccone is in the news for wanting "In God We Trust" to be displayed in Pennsylvania's public schools. Before this and other conservative headlines, though, the Pittsburgh native worked in North Korea with the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization and wrote a wonderful little book worth reading on his year there, Living with the Enemy: Inside North Korea. The title is facetious, and it's a book on the country that, uncommonly for the genre, provides insight without being judgmental or condescending. "My intention is for the reader", he writes on page 8,

to come away with a better understanding of the people of North Korea. My experience confirmed the most effective way to deal with North Koreans is to suspend our preconceived judgment for a moment and attempt to think as they do, to understand their perspective more clearly.

Conflict Kitchen's North Korean menu starts Friday.

The long-awaited (at least here) North Korean menu will begin at Conflict Kitchen on Friday, November 22. Conflict Kitchen, "a restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict", is located in Schenley Plaza in Oakland (map). The signage that went up alongside its Cuban advertisements promotes tofu stuffed with rice (두부밥), cinnamon tea (수정과), fermented soybean paste stew (된장찌개), and a buckwheat noodle soup (메밀국수).

Update, 11/21/2013:



The menu is now posted, too, and includes bibimbap, naengmyeon, and tteokbokki, and songpyeon.

Photos of Conflict Kitchen's trip to Anyang.

Earlier this month Conflict Kitchen shared photos of their August trip to Anyang, South Korea, made in preparation for their North Korean menu this fall.


Naengmyeon (냉면), a specialty of Pyeongyang and of numerous South Korean cities, too.

Conflict Kitchen is "a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict" located in Schenley Plaza in Oakland.

Conflict Kitchen is hiring.

Conflict Kitchen, the Oakland foodstand that serves food from nations with which the United States is in conflict, is hiring. From the website:

Employees need to be capable of both working in the kitchen as well as interacting with our customers on topics related to our focus country in the sales window and at our dinners. Employees must bring a keen interest in international politics and cultural relations. Our employees are the face of Conflict Kitchen, and their conversations with our guests are at the core of our mission. We expect our employees to be expert conversationalists, deeply versed in the culture and politics within our focus county. We also expect our employees to learn how to produce our cuisine in an efficient, consistent, and professional manner.

Those interested may submit a resume via the restaurant's website. It's currently serving Cuban food, and will debut its North Korean menu in October.