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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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.
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Japan had purchased doses to vaccinate 72 million people, but without the appropriate syringes, it will fall 12 million people short.
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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.
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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.
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Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces new voluntary restrictions amid alarm at rapidly increasing coronavirus case numbers.
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New social distancing measures are due to take effect Tuesday evening. The government warns of an impending crisis, brought on by a third wave of infections.
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Amid criticism of the government's recent handling of the pandemic, the country is seeing more cases than at any other time in the past nine months.
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South Korean lawmakers say intelligence officials briefed them on the North's tough pandemic rules, including a Pyongyang lockdown and an execution of an official caught breaking restrictions.
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Previous spikes in South Korea were linked to outbreaks at churches and protests. Health officials say the current wave appears to have no links to any major groups or events.
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South Korea's president sent President Trump a message of "solace and encouragement." A Chinese newspaper editor tweeted that Trump had "paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19."