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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South Korea's government is criticized after it passed a law banning sending leaflets and other materials into North Korea. The law is intended to reduce tensions between the two countries.
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South Korea has deemed its K-pop stars soft power national security assets. And with a new law, K-pop artists can now defer mandatory military service along with classical musicians and star athletes.
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South Korea, which has largely succeeded in keeping the coronavirus in check, is now seeing a new spike in cases. Restrictions on big gatherings and social distancing rules will begin on Tuesday.
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New social distancing measures are due to take effect Tuesday evening. The government warns of an impending crisis, brought on by a third wave of infections. -
Seventy years on, war participants are drawing starkly differing conclusions from the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. The decisive conflict's lasting legacy is still visible on the Korean Peninsula. -
Amid criticism of the government's recent handling of the pandemic, the country is seeing more cases than at any other time in the past nine months. -
After winning praise for aggressively tackling COVID-19 early on in the pandemic, critics say South Korea's government is breaking its own rules, and is handling a third wave of cases timidly.
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South Korean lawmakers say intelligence officials briefed them on the North's tough pandemic rules, including a Pyongyang lockdown and an execution of an official caught breaking restrictions. -
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the battle of Chosin Reservoir, a key moment in the Korean War. The war's legacy is felt to this day on the divided Korean peninsula.
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Previous spikes in South Korea were linked to outbreaks at churches and protests. Health officials say the current wave appears to have no links to any major groups or events.
