**Bring passport or photo ID** North Korea is often described as ‘strange’ or ‘paranoid’ country. Nothing can be further from the truth, leading North Korea-watcher Andrei Lankov argues. North Korea’s leaders are rational and far-sighted, and they are successful survivors and master diplomats who have outsmarted even the most formidable adversaries. They know that doing [...]

China was “guest of honour” at  this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest publishing trade event. More than a thousand officials, publishers and writers from the People’s Republic travelled to Germany. Chinese officials called  Frankfurt the “Cultural Olympics”: a showcase for its new strategy of exporting “soft power” and bringing China´s culture to the [...]