Anthony Kuhn
Anthony Kuhn is NPR's correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea, reporting on the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the great diversity of Asia's countries and cultures. Before moving to Seoul in 2018, he traveled to the region to cover major stories including the North Korean nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster.
Kuhn previously served two five-year stints in Beijing, China, for NPR, during which he covered major stories such as the Beijing Olympics, geopolitical jousting in the South China Sea, and the lives of Tibetans, Uighurs, and other minorities in China's borderlands.
He took a particular interest in China's rich traditional culture and its impact on the current day. He has recorded the sonic calling cards of itinerant merchants in Beijing's back alleys, and the descendants of court musicians of the Tang Dynasty. He has profiled petitioners and rights lawyers struggling for justice, and educational reformers striving to change the way Chinese think.
From 2010-2013, Kuhn was NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Among other stories, he explored Borneo and Sumatra, and witnessed the fight to preserve the biodiversity of the world's oldest forests. He also followed Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, as she rose from political prisoner to head of state.
Kuhn served as NPR's correspondent in London from 2004-2005, covering stories including the London subway bombings and the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Duchess of Cornwall.
Besides his major postings, Kuhn's journalistic horizons have been expanded by various short-term assignments. These produced stories including wartime black humor in Iraq, musical diplomacy by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang, North Korea, a kerfuffle over the plumbing in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Pakistani artists' struggle with religious extremism in Lahore, and the Syrian civil war's spillover into neighboring Lebanon.
Prior to joining NPR, Kuhn wrote for the Far Eastern Economic Review and freelanced for various news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. He majored in French literature as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, and later did graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American studies in Nanjing.
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Abe announced he is leaving office before his term ends in 2021 because of poor health. His legacy is controversial and a successor is unclear. -
After months of keeping COVID-19 in check, and despite the public's cooperation with well-prepared health authorities, South Korea is battling a new upsurge in cases that could dwarf earlier ones.
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Officials believe church gatherings in the greater Seoul region are largely responsible for a sudden increase in COVID-19 infections. South Korea had been praised for its control of the virus.
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With a view to reaching English-speaking and South Korean audiences, the videos show glimpses of Pyongyang, highlight consumerism and try to dispel notions that life is restricted and people are poor.
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Her political star has risen since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, leading to speculation that she could one day become the country's first female leader — if North Korea's patriarchy would allow it.
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Mayor Park Won-soon's daughter told police he left a verbal message similar to a will, and later turned off his mobile phone. His body was found in a wooded park early Friday, police say.
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Privacy advocates warn the government has kept the information from 2015 MERS patients beyond a justified emergency period.
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South Korea conscripted more than 30,000 soldiers between the ages of 14 and 17 for the war. An estimated 3,000 of them died. One survivor prays daily for their souls.
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South Korean health authorities say they are storing personal data of 2015 MERS outbreak patients. Privacy advocates say this is illegal and a flaw in a mostly successful contact tracing system.
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Pyongyang says forces will be sent to Kaesong, an inter-Korean industrial park along the border where a liaison office was blown up by North Korea earlier this week.
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The office, north of the Demilitarized Zone, appears to have been empty when it was destroyed. The act follows threats from Pyongyang, and experts say provocations from the North will likely continue.
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The destruction appears to signal that after two years of diplomacy and summits involving the two Koreas and the U.S., it's back to a period of confrontation and provocations.
