Greetings from Beijing and another amazing North Korea trip! This time we visited places few (no?) Americans or non-North Koreans have visited in decades. We also saw the incredible beauty of the country outside Pyongyang and the DMZ. Pictures and stories to come! By the way, I tag this post with leadership because, as you’ll see, we did a lot more than just tour around. We interacted directly with many[…] Keep reading →

My friend Sebastian organizes Lectures on Strategy, strategy talks to entrepreneurs and other strategists in Beijing, and invited me to speak to his group. If you’re in Beijing, see me speak April 22 at 4pm, near the Shuangjing subway stop. RSVP to me or Sebastian (sebastian at sebastianmarshall.com) for details. I’m basing it on my talk at Columbia Business School last month, using mostly the same slides. He plans to[…] Keep reading →

I just found this video one of my group-mates took that illustrates one of North Korea’s benign oddities — they make amazing scale models of things. Their museums are full of them. This video shows a model train. I’m not sure the value of showing these models. What do they convey besides model-making skills? I don’t quite get it. You also hear at the beginning one of our funniest running[…] Keep reading →

Here’s the first of two podcasts of four of my travel-mates made on our August 2011 visit to North Korea. The original is here. Jordan, who produced the podcast, runs a dating school, which is why you’ll hear ads for it in the podcast. Neil runs a dating school too, among other things. Gabriel is a writer, among other things. Joseph took the most amazing pictures of North Korea I’ve[…] Keep reading →

My interactions with North Korea have taught me more about myself and my values than anything else in recent memory. I was going to say it taught me more about being an American, but being an American means something different to me today than it used to, and means something different to everyone. I’m thinking about America in the context of North Korea today because I’m in the middle of[…] Keep reading →

Today I’m just linking to a radio interview on a man born and raised in the North Korea prison camp system. Prepare yourself before listening since it gets serious. It speaks for itself. I understand the North Korean government generally states it has no prison camps. Visiting North Korea through the government tour, you would see no evidence of this story. Reading Nothing to Envy, you find out more about[…] Keep reading →

This NY TImes article on North Korea and its environment, Q. and A.: North Korea’s Choked Environment, reminded me of other routes to create bonds and understanding with North Korea — nature and science. The article describes the current environmental situation there, some history, and how a conference on it went. Since the Korean War North Korea has lost trees, exacerbated by famine, mismanagement, flooding, and so on. Everybody gains[…] Keep reading →

When I first saw this picture, reading in the New York Times how “In South Korea Visit, Obama Visits Border and Warns North,” I thought little of it, until I thought back to my earlier post on leadership opportunities for U.S. Presidents. I consider visiting a militarized border admirable and addressing North Korea important. But standing behind bulletproof glass is nothing like the speeches of Kennedy and Reagan. Maybe North[…] Keep reading →

Saturday’s talk on North Korea at Columbia Business School went great — a full room, an attentive audience, and great questions at the end. I didn’t leave as much time for questions as I wish I had, but the organizer told me people told her they liked the talk a lot. Several people asked for copies of the slides so I’m posting them here instead of sending multiple emails.