Professor of Korean Studies Remco Breuker has been awarded a subsidy from the European Research Council to study the dispute between both Koreas and China on the history of Manchuria.

The president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, has chosen not to use his presidential compound. Professor Remco Breuker states in Time that this marks a change in South Korea’s approach to the compound.

How to deal with the Pyongyang regime? Is North Korea irrational? Prof. Remco Breuker proposes a new approach.

Professor Remco Breuker plays the leading role in the new documentary ‘Big in Korea’. Over three Sunday evenings, viewers can follow his journey through South Korea. How has the country developed over the past decades? And what is the impact of last December's failed coup?

Wordt het nog wat met de Arabische lente?

Since it was announced that North Korean President Kim Jong-un is ready to launch an intercontinental nuclear missile, fear of a nuclear war is growing by the day. Professor and North Korea expert Remco Breuker talks about the increased international tensions and their consequences for his work.

Overview of the Leiden Asia staff per area or country.

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

This dissertation presents four separate chapters, all striving towards the same goal: to understand dynamic phenomena occurring in dynamic networks and to explore the emergence of equilibrium in a broad sense.

Lecture, Book presentation

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 Wednesday 14 February 2024 Yorum Beekman successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Yi Kyubo (1168–1241) was the foremost writer and poet of the Koryŏ dynasty (918–1392). Not Everything Unfolds as Anticipated is a miscellany of work from his Tongguk Yi Sangguk chip, a collection containing more than two thousand texts and considered the earliest substantial oeuvre of a Koryŏ writer…

Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea (Samguk yusa) is the first annotated English translation of one of the most important premodern Korean historical texts.

Furious protesters in Budapest and other Hungarian cities demand the departure of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The reason for the large-scale protests is the adaptation of the labor law, especially lucrative for German companies and investors, by the Hungarian prime minister.

Our East Asia experts work across various disciplines on global issues such as migration, heritage, and colonialism.

The new cabinet threatens to cut nearly a billion euros from higher education. This not only endangers academic work, it is a disaster for the Netherlands itself. The proposed penalty on study extensions and other financial measures will heavily impact students and will reduce education accessibility.…

The long term goal of the Biophysical Organic Chemistry/SSNMR group, headed by Prof. Huub de Groot, is to reach an understanding of structure, dynamics and functional mechanisms of membrane proteins and self-organized biological assemblies and to translate this knowledge into new concepts for nano-devices,…

Would you like to develop further and be challenged academically in your field or beyond? The Faculty of Humanities offers a wide range of courses to boost your career, learn new skills or broaden your knowledge.

Leiden University has long history of research and teaching on Asian traditions, with a focus on language and philology, history, religious studies, philosophy, law and literature. Leiden has in the last thirty years also built up an equally impressive strength in the study of modern and contemporary…

This project investigates the multilingual networks of Dutch lyrical texts, manuscripts and early prints, examining their transmission, dissemination, and reception during the 15th and 16th century.

North Korean detention camps are no different from Nazi prison camps. But as long as the country remains economically isolated, international criticism will be ineffective, writes North Korea expert Remco Breuker in the opinion section of Dutch newspaper NRC on 21 February. Breuker advocates using the…

Professors Remco Breuker and Barend van der Meulen are ‘top of the class’ for academic year 2018-2019 according to ScienceGuide. This science magazine has just published its list of the most influential thinkers and do-ers in higher education and science, and Breuker and Van der Meulen are on it.

Did you know we have a complete dossier about Korea in de news? Together with Remco Breuker, Professor of Koreastudies, and our other experts we keep you posted about everything regarding both Koreas!

Leiden academics Remco Breuker and Auke-Florian Hiemstra stand to win the title of Person of the Year.

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.

Richard Chancellor, the English Willem Barentsz, discovered the North Cape during the first English expedition to attempt to find a northeast passage. But the ship, the Edward Bonaventure, was ‘robbed by Flemings on its return in 1554.’ Historian Louis Sicking and legal expert Remco van Rhee found the…

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker expressed his support in the media for 'The Real Opening,' the protest against government cuts. 'The plans are a disaster for higher education.' Professor Remco Breuker, one of the organisers of this protest on 2 September, called in NRC Handelsblad for a stop to the…

Leiden researchers discovered that North Korean labourers are being forced to work on a large scale in Poland. Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker will present a report on the abuses in Poland at the ‘Slaves To The System’ conference on 6 July.

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,…