Myung-jin Han with Nicolas Levi, "I Was a North Korean Diplomat: Inside the Secret World of Pyongyang's Foreign Service" (Independently Published, 2026)

About this episode

Nicolas Levi discusses his book on the insights of a former North Korean diplomat and the complexities of the North Korean elite.

Nicolas Levi is a researcher at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has authored numerous books related to North Korea and is a regular commentator on the country’s elite social and political structures. I Was a North Korean Diplomat: Inside the Secret World of Pyongyang's Foreign Service (Independently Published, 2026) is Levi’s tenth book, a collaborative work based on extensive dialogues with Han Jin-myung (a pseudonym), a former member of the North Korean elite who served in a specialized military drone unit and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before defecting in 2015. The book provides a rare, ground-level look at the life of the North Korean upper class, tracing Han’s journey from a privileged childhood in Pyongyang to the high-pressure world of international diplomacy and illicit regime fundraising in Southeast Asia. Through Han’s testimony, the book explores the psychological realities of loyalty, the "golden cage" of the North Korean elite, and the climate of fear following the 2013 execution of Jang Song-thaek, offering readers a unique perspective on the inner workings of the North Korean state. Anthony Kao is a…

People in this episode

Guest: Nicolas Levi

Topics covered

• North Korea
• diplomacy
• defection
• elite social structures
• psychological realities

Keywords

• North Korea
• diplomat
• defection
• foreign service
• elite
• psychological realities
• international diplomacy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Books & works: I Was a North Korean Diplomat: Inside the Secret World of Pyongyang's Foreign Service

More episodes of New Books in Korean Studies

• Paige Towers, "What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption" (U Iowa Press, 2026) · May 28, 2026 · 59 min
• Hannah Shepherd, "The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region" (U California Press, 2025) · May 27, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Hannah Shepherd, "The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region" (U California Press, 2025) · May 27, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Gregg A. Brazinsky, "Cold War Comrades: An Emotional History of the Sino-North Korean Alliance" (Cambridge UP, 2026) · May 16, 2026 · 46 min
• Fyodor Tertititsky, "Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea" (Hurst, 2026) · May 14, 2026 · 35 min
• David Krolikoski, "Lyrical Translation: The Creation of Modern Poetry in Colonial Korea" (U Hawai'i Press, 2026) · May 2, 2026 · 1h 7m