Anthony Kuhn
Anthony Kuhn is NPR's correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea, reporting on the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the great diversity of Asia's countries and cultures. Before moving to Seoul in 2018, he traveled to the region to cover major stories including the North Korean nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster.
Kuhn previously served two five-year stints in Beijing, China, for NPR, during which he covered major stories such as the Beijing Olympics, geopolitical jousting in the South China Sea, and the lives of Tibetans, Uighurs, and other minorities in China's borderlands.
He took a particular interest in China's rich traditional culture and its impact on the current day. He has recorded the sonic calling cards of itinerant merchants in Beijing's back alleys, and the descendants of court musicians of the Tang Dynasty. He has profiled petitioners and rights lawyers struggling for justice, and educational reformers striving to change the way Chinese think.
From 2010-2013, Kuhn was NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Among other stories, he explored Borneo and Sumatra, and witnessed the fight to preserve the biodiversity of the world's oldest forests. He also followed Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, as she rose from political prisoner to head of state.
Kuhn served as NPR's correspondent in London from 2004-2005, covering stories including the London subway bombings and the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Duchess of Cornwall.
Besides his major postings, Kuhn's journalistic horizons have been expanded by various short-term assignments. These produced stories including wartime black humor in Iraq, musical diplomacy by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang, North Korea, a kerfuffle over the plumbing in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Pakistani artists' struggle with religious extremism in Lahore, and the Syrian civil war's spillover into neighboring Lebanon.
Prior to joining NPR, Kuhn wrote for the Far Eastern Economic Review and freelanced for various news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. He majored in French literature as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, and later did graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American studies in Nanjing.
-
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Russian city of Vladivostok — the same site as their last meeting in 2019, but under different circumstances.
-
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia where he's expected to meet President Putin amid Western worries about a potential arms deal and more.
-
The Japanese government says the water it is discharging has been treated to remove most of the radioactive material — making it safe. The release remains controversial.
-
Japan's government says tomorrow it will begin releasing more than a million tons of wastewater into the Pacific Ocean from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.
-
Leaders in South Korea, Japan and the United States are celebrating new security agreements announced Friday. The plans, which are not treaties, come as the countries' Asian rivals also grow closer.
-
For the first time since 2015, foreign leaders have been invited to the presidential retreat. Biden wants to strengthen ties with both countries as part of a broader push to counter China's influence.
-
Tensions in East Asia are on the rise, with the first North Korean ICBM launch in some three months and the U.S. expected to send its first nuclear-armed sub to the region in decades.
-
There is growing concern in Japan about the dominance of older politicians who lavish welfare spending on older voters, while young politicians are rare. (Story aired on ATC on June 28, 2023.)
-
In Japan, there are growing concerns about the dominance of older politicians who lavish welfare spending on older voters, while young politicians are rare, in a situation dubbed "silver democracy."
-
Japan's expected release of radioactive water from a damaged nuclear plant has alarmed South Korea, possibly jeopardizing a fragile rapprochement between the two neighbors and U.S. allies.