The BBC Newshour interviewed Ohio University alum Dr. Adam Cathcart about North Korea this week.
Adam Cathcart
Cathcart is a Lecturer in Chinese History at the University of Leeds. He earned a music degree at Ohio University, followed by an M.A. and a Ph.D. in History from the College of Arts & Sciences.
“The questions in this recent interview with BBC veteran presenter Julian Marshall started with some standard photo analysis of the young North Korean dictator’s cane, but they managed to veer back to core issues about how “stable” things might actually be within the DPRK leadership system. While purges and coups are never out of the realm of possibility, having some historical perspective on the matter never hurts,” says Cathcart on his blog.
“There’s so much that we don’t’ know about him and also what the back up plan is,” Cathcart said in the interview. “And I think it’s not just the West, it’s also China and South Korea I think would be very very keen to get some sense of the B team, or what is the backup. And I think that that‘s still somewhat up in the air because these people around Kim Jong-un are not really charismatic figures on their own right, and this system is driven by charisma.”
Listen to his interview. (Starting around 40 minutes into the BBC Newshour.)
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