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Ju-min Park
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 11, 2015
North Korea's unofficial markets driven by repurposed buses
It is not Amazon or FedEx, but in North Korea's fledgling market economy, a fleet of re-purposed old passenger buses is the next best thing for moving trade goods, from rice to textiles and livestock, between far-flung corners of the country.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 26, 2015
Korean peace meeting was a summit by proxy
The leaders of North and South Korea have not met for the last eight years, but the marathon 44-hour talks that brought the bitter rivals back from the brink of conflict was effectively a summit by proxy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 25, 2015
In North Korea, men call the shots, women make the money
North Korea is a militarized, male-dominated society, but it is women who are making the money as the insular nation allows an unofficial market-based economy to take shape.
CULTURE / Music
May 7, 2015
Korean pop band Bigbang back with new single after three years
South Korean boy band Bigbang is back on the music scene after a three-year hiatus, with a new single delving into the stresses of daily life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2015
South Korean children navigate rocky road to K-pop stardom
Nine-year-old Kim Si-yoon has no time to throw tantrums.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 5, 2014
North Korea's hackers are a hand-picked elite
Despite its poverty and isolation, North Korea has poured resources into a sophisticated cyber warfare cell called Bureau 121, defectors from the secretive state said as Pyongyang came under the microscope for a crippling hack into computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 28, 2014
North Korean 'princess' moves closer to center of power
In her slim-fitting pantsuits and black-heeled shoes, Kim Yo Jong cuts a contrasting figure to her pudgy older brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 22, 2014
Jailed American lived enigmatic life
Matthew Miller, the U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea on espionage charges, spent months in South Korea pretending to be an Englishman named "Preston Somerset," acquaintances who met or worked with him say.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 22, 2014
Some South Korean ferry mourners tire of activists seizing their cause
South Korean families who lost loved ones in April's ferry disaster are demanding accountability from the government, but some have grown weary of strident activists adopting their cause for political ends.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2014
While Japan presses North on abductions, South Korea victims are forgotten
Kim Young-nam was a teenager living on the coast of South Korea when he disappeared in 1978, only to turn up in North Korea. There, he met and married Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national abducted by North Korean agents on her way home from school a year earlier.

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