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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High-level diplomacy helped avert a disaster last month, in a dispute over the unpaid water bill of one of Christendom's holiest sites. The water company that supplies the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem said it owed $2.3 million. Eventually, the bill was waived 鈥� but the church now promises to pay going forward. -
Olive trees symbolize peace and freedom for the Palestinian people, but the economic realities of living in the West Bank are making it harder than ever to cultivate and harvest this traditional food source. -
The country's ultra-Orthodox Jews control kosher certification, but some restaurants are raising objections and forming their own rival certification association. The dispute is part of a wider debate over how Israel should manage the relationship between church and state.
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A 1,000-year-old statue, a vine-and-moss-covered temple complex and a country's turbulent history lie at the heart of a legal battle pitting the Cambodian government against Sotheby's auction house. Officials say the statue was looted from an ancient Khmer temple; Sotheby's says that's not provable. -
For more than half a century, former King Norodom Sihanouk dominated his country's politics, from French colonial rule to independence. He is also known for his unsuccessful efforts to keep Cambodia out of the Vietnam War and his alliance with the Khmer Rouge. "The King Father," who thought of himself more as an artist than as a politician, died Monday at age 89. -
A Cambodian court has convicted a pro-democracy journalist on charges of inciting a tiny village to secede from the rest of the country. Critics say the case is part of wider efforts by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to stifle dissent, and is a sign that the country's democracy is regressing. -
Singapore's government can still detain citizens indefinitely, without charges or trial, thanks to colonial-era security laws. But in a sign of changing times in the wealthy Southeast Asian city-state, many of those who've been held are now speaking out and challenging the laws after decades of silence. -
The opposition leader in Myanmar arrives in the U.S., where she is being feted as if she were a head of state. She will receive honors that include the Congressional Gold Medal. -
Lower taxes weren't the only thing that attracted Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin when he made his new home in Singapore in May. The World Bank lists Singapore as the easiest place to do business. Increasingly, money and talent are drawn to the city-state's tech sector.
