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.
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China's fast-growing armed forces face increased scrutiny over how they are spending what is now the world's second-largest military budget. -
President Obama is in South Korea, on another stop in his four-nation swing through East Asia. He voiced support for the country amid North Korea's threats to detonate another nuclear device.
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President Obama is visiting East Asia, stopping in Japan and three other countries. The trip aims to assure U.S. allies that they're not forgotten, even as China gets more bullish with its neighbors.
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It's been a grim Easter Sunday in South Korea as the death toll continues to rise from the ferry disaster that left nearly 300 passengers, many of them high school students, dead or missing.
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It's been a week of tragedy for the community of Ansan, an industrial town near Seoul. Many of the high school teenagers who sank with the South Korean ferry last week attended high school there.
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The search continues for survivors and answers in the South Korean ferry disaster. NPR's Anthony Kuhn offers details on the latest developments.
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Many relatives of passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are furious at being told that there is no hope of finding their relatives alive 鈥� and many are convinced of a conspiracy.
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Malaysia's prime minister concluded that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean," setting off howls of grief and anger among passengers' families. The search continues for debris that would confirm the flight crashed.
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Malaysia's government, which is leading the search for the missing airliner, has come under fire from critics who are accusing it of mismanagement and partisan politicking.
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The mystery of flight MH370 deepens, with police now investigating those on board. Malaysian police have confirmed that the homes of all the jetliner's crew have been searched.
