The reality behind the caricature with Professor Hazel Smith. North Korea is portrayed as a dangerous and irrational military power with the stated intention of using nuclear weapons against the US. It is also seen as uniquely repressive, driving its population to untold levels of poverty and deprivation, and as a criminal state systematically abusing diplomatic immunity to smuggle and manufacture counterfeit currency, narcotics, and other illicit goods across borders in a system designed to enhance the personal fortunes of the leadership. This picture obscures the fact that North Korea is hardly unique in this respect, and that its 25 million population, whose priorities are economic survival in one of the world’s poorest countries, face complex and diverse challenges shaped by generation, gender, occupation, social class and geographical location. Professor Hazel Smith is Professorial Research Associate in the Centre for Korean Studies at SOAS. She has written extensively about North Korea over many years, and her most recent book is North Korea: Markets and military rule (2015). She is regularly called on to advise governments, including those of the UK and the US, and is a frequent broadcaster for the global media on North Korea, where she lived and worked for United Nations humanitarian organisations for two years. She will discuss with us the complex realities behind the conventional caricatures of the country.

Nearest tube station Farringdon. 6.45pm (doors open 6.30).