Hard numbers are, well, hard to come by in and from North Korea, making quantitative analysis much more challenging than it would be in other parts of the world. The denouement of decades of poor or non-existence record keeping means even rather mundane measurements, such as a national census, are at best guesswork.
Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt has sought to clear up the opacity to provide more accurate demographic and economic development statistics for North Korea.
On this week’s episode, we talk about his work and related challenges, why North Korea’s poor numerics may in fact be a strategic move, predicting the end of the DPRK, and learn about the time he got a death threat from Pyongyang.
Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he researches and writes extensively on demographics and economic development generally, and more specifically on international security in the Korean peninsula and Asia.
About the podcast: The “North Korea News Podcast” is a weekly podcast hosted exclusively by NK News, covering all things DPRK: from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field and insight from our very own journalists.
Featured image: NK News