Giovanni Gruni publishes a peer reviewed paper in the Korean Journal of international and Comparative Law.

‘Three books published within a year – that happens only once in a lifetime!’ This was the reaction of Katarzyna Cwiertka, Professor of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University, on the publication of Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War, one of her three new books. The book sketches the colonisation of…

Clothes by big Western brands that are on sale in Dutch shops are sometimes made by North Korean workers. The Dutch state is co-financer of a motorway that is being built in Pakistan by exploited workers. These are the conclusions of a report published by the LeidenAsiaCentre on 2 April.

Koen de Ceuster, university lecturer for Korea Studies at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, was interviewed on the NKNews Podcast about art in North Korea. He speaks about the role of art in North Korean society, art ‘business’, and argues why it is not possible to separate propaganda…

Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea, is dead. His youngest son Kim Jong Eun is expected to be his successor. Remco Breuker, Leiden Professor of Korea Studies, gives a profile of the new leader.

Relevant publications of the CIGR participants.

eLaw- Center for Law and Digital Technologies is based in the Kamerlingh Onnes Building, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES Leiden.

John van Noort

The portfolio of eLaw includes research executed for the European Commission, NWO (the national research council in the Netherlands), the national government, local government agencies, large corporations, SMEs and NGOs.

The notion of North Koreans as brainwashed and unable to think critically about their heritage and what it means to be North Korean is pervasive. More so, it is untrue, argues Christopher Green: ‘North Koreans, like any other people are diverse in their opinions and self-understanding.’ PhD defence…

LIAS aims to advance the globally conscious vision of area studies, both within and outside the academic community. Focusing on Asia and the Middle East, the institute is a meeting place of multiple fields of inquiry, theories and methods, historical periods, and areas.

On 8 May, the memoirs of Jang Jin-sung are appearing worldwide under the title Dear Leader. Jan Jin-sung was a member of the personal circle of the former North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il. Dear Leader provides a radically different perspective on the workings of the regime, as it reveals the moving…

Visualization of biomolecules in living cells by tagging with gold nanoparticles.

Something that a year ago would have been unthinkable has become a reality on 12 June: Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un sat down together to talk about nuclear disarmament. Can these two hardliners reach agreement in the negotiations? Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker is doubtful. 'As it looks now,…

Seven prominent North Korean exiles will shed new light on the dictatorial state in a conference hosted by Leiden University on 17 and 18 September. All of the speakers once held high-ranking positions in the regime and now reveal its inner workings.

The Master’s in Korean Studies at Leiden University offers a unique opportunity to conduct graduate level research, on various aspects of pre-modern and contemporary Korea, and to spend a full academic year at a university in South Korea.

The greatest threat to the North Korean regime is not the outside world but its own developing private market and the growing frictions at the top. This was the argument put forward by North Korean exile Jang Jin-sung in his lecture in Leiden on 18 September 2014.

The two-year master's in Korean Studies, a specialisation of Leiden University’s master's in Asian Studies, offers a large and varied selection of subjects and the freedom to choose the areas upon which you will focus.

How can novel bioimaging technologies and vertebrate model species be used to gain a better understanding of early cellular behaviours with the ultimate goal to increase our understanding of human development and disease processes?

Xiao Ma defended her thesis on 26 September 2018

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Schmidt, Co-promotor: Dr. ir. S. J.T. van Noort

Brandon Valeriano (Cato Institute) and Aleydis Nissen (Leiden University) publish an article on the soft power of K-pop in The Diplomat.

Lecture, LAC Asia Academy

De onstuitbare opmars van de N.V. Zuid-Korea. (in Dutch).

The Asian Library holds the largest collection on Indonesia worldwide, and some of the foremost collections on South and Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea.

North Korean labourers are still being forced to work in the European Union. According to researchers, including Professor of Korean Studies Remco Breuker at Leiden University, Dutch companies are buying ships from a dockyard that uses North Korean workers.

For thousands of years, societies have fallen under the reign of a single leader, ruling as chief, king, or emperor. In this fascinating global history of medieval and early modern dynastic power, Jeroen Duindam charts the rise and fall of dynasties, the rituals of rulership, and the contested presence…

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Schmidt, Co-Promotor: Dr. ir. S.J.T. van Noort

The Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) is devoted to the study of places in the human world from antiquity to the present time in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective.

Overview of the Leiden Asia staff per area or country.

If you really want to understand East Asia, you can't overlook Korea. At the Bachelor's programme Korean Studies at Leiden University you will discover a fascinating mix of age-old traditions and modern customs through intensively studying culture, history and language.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on oil, may open up new opportunities for Korea. Spearheading the way is Hallyu — the Korean wave, led by K-pop and dramas as a soft power to open new business opportunities in the Middle East, especially…

Confucianism has been a major force in the cultural history of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam for thousands of years, affecting the art, literature, science and politics of all these countries.

Key research articles and book chapters of the Chromatin group.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2017, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

Science, Leiden Institute of Physics (LION)

As a woman, working in Japan and Korea can be pretty tough, Yorum Beekman discovered. It prompted her to pursue a PhD on the subject: ‘I thought: hey, that’s interesting!’

Cwiertka wants to investigate how waste is produced and disposed of in modern East Asian society. With her research group she will be carrying out a comparative analysis on two levels: the international level (between China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) and the inter-regional level (between East Asia…

The master’s in East Asian Studies, a specialisation within the master's of Asian Studies, combines an exceptional range of courses with advanced language training and outstanding resources and expertise.

On 31 August 2022, a delegation from the Korean Ministry of Government Legislation visited the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) at Leiden University as part of their official visit to the Netherlands. The delegation’s visit was aimed at exchanging knowledge and experience on interaction…

The CIGR comprises research groups from the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Leiden Institue of Physics (LION).

Political scientists Huib Pellikaan and Niels van Willigen (Leiden University) use and elaborate on the theoretical insights from game theory in order to understand nuclear security in changing environment. Now that the relations between the US and Russia have deteriorated and smaller nuclear states…

PhD at the Natural Product Laboratory, Institute of Biology, Leiden University - the Netherlands