Broadcasting live from Pyongyang – NKNews Podcast Ep. 213

In his 24 years as a correspondent for CNN, Mike Chinoy had the opportunity to cover key moments in North Korean history from inside the country, from Jimmy Carter’s visit and the aftermath of Kim Il Sung’s death to a military parade held amid unprecedented famine. He joins the podcast to discuss what it’s like to report on the ground from a country that at first seemed like the “weirdest place on the face of the Earth,” and recounts experiences like his meeting with an “avuncular” Kim Il Sung and much more. “If you look at North Korea as a jigsaw puzzle of a hundred pieces, going there gives you a few pieces that you don’t have if you’re trying to put together the puzzle from the outside,” he says. Chinoy is a nonresident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s U.S.-China Institute and a former senior Asia correspondent at CNN. He is the author of four books, including his 2008 book “Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.” You can find him on Twitter at @mikechinoy. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot (@JaccoZed) exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.