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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The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has doubled over the past month, and experts estimate that the current fifth wave of infections still has a week or two to go before reaching its peak. -
Tokyo-area hospitals "have their hands full," the Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association says in an open letter to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The group represents some 6,000 primary care doctors. -
Japan had purchased doses to vaccinate 72 million people, but without the appropriate syringes, it will fall 12 million people short. -
Japan is extending the state of emergency for one more month. The move comes despite a mounting toll on the economy and the threat of bumping up against the country's Summer Olympics preparations. -
Officials are swatting away rumors and reports that the government has concluded that new coronavirus restrictions will force the cancellation of the already delayed games. -
Kim's comments come just days ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. Biden has promised "principled diplomacy" with North Korea, implying a break with Trump's high-stakes summits. -
Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces new voluntary restrictions amid alarm at rapidly increasing coronavirus case numbers. -
At a party congress gathering in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un acknowledged that policies of the past five years had been an abject failure.
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South Korea has weathered the pandemic well until now, when cases have spiked to new highs. And despite its vaunted early response, vaccination won't begin until February.
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During the pandemic, Japan's government has been subsidizing travel and tourism to juice the economy. After a spike in coronavirus cases, it will now suspend the program for two weeks.
