Elise Hu
Elise Hu is a host-at-large based at NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Previously, she explored the future with her video series, Future You with Elise Hu, and served as the founding bureau chief and International Correspondent for NPR's Seoul office. She was based in Seoul for nearly four years, responsible for the network's coverage of both Koreas and Japan, and filed from a dozen countries across Asia.
Before joining NPR, she was one of the founding reporters at The Texas Tribune, a non-profit digital news startup devoted to politics and public policy. While at the Tribune, Hu oversaw television partnerships and multimedia projects, contributed to The New York Times' expanded Texas coverage, and pushed for editorial innovation across platforms.
An honors graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Journalism, she previously worked as the state political reporter for KVUE-TV in Austin, WYFF-TV in Greenville, SC, and reported from Asia for the Taipei Times.
Her work at NPR has earned a DuPont-Columbia award and a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media for her video series, Elise Tries. Her previous work has earned a Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism, a National Edward R. Murrow award for best online video, and beat reporting awards from the Texas Associated Press. The Austin Chronicle once dubiously named her the "Best TV Reporter Who Can Write."
Outside of work, Hu has taught digital journalism at Northwestern University and Georgetown University's journalism schools and served as a guest co-host for TWIT.tv's program, Tech News Today. She's on the board of Grist Magazine and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Following a gruesome killing, allegedly by a former Marine, controversy over the presence of American troops on Okinawa is adding another layer to Obama's historic trip this week. -
"Wongok Village is what Korea will look like in the future," says a grade school teacher in a self-styled "borderless village" south of Seoul, where most of the residents are non-Korean. -
North Korea's powerful are gathering for their first ruling party congress in decades. Kim Jong Un is working to consolidate his power at home — and regionally — with an expanded nuclear arsenal. -
At North Korea's first Workers' Party Congress in 36 years, Kim declares "unprecedented results" in recent nuclear and missile tests. He's shown greater willingness to speak publicly than his father. -
Samsung's rigorous aptitude test underscores the company's near-mythical status in Korean society. "I think this is only the way to be successful," says a test-taker before braving the entrance exam. -
The "Samsung SAT" is the South Korean company's aptitude test that features a gantlet of 160 questions in 140 minutes. Test yourself with a few practice questions.
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The military officer's defection follows the news of 13 North Korean restaurant workers who defected en masse last week. -
The U.S. State Department, the United Nations and human rights groups say South Korea's controversial National Security Law chokes freedom of expression.
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Assimilating into South Korean society is rarely easy for North Korean defectors. Top plastic surgeons are volunteering their services to help minimize the scars they bear from painful, abusive pasts. -
The isolated nation has undertaken a series of provocative steps, launching missiles and bombastic rhetoric. Analysts are debating what leader Kim Jong Un is trying to achieve.
