It's going to be a crazy weekend! Drum n' bass outfit Pendulum will be playing at Boom, while restauranteur David Laris hosts the Shanghai Ireland Festival on Saturday. Litfest is still going on, and on Sunday a few North Korean movies will be showing at The Apartment to wrap up the weekend. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. more ›

That's what the Washington Post reported. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two jailed American journalists, were working on a story about the trafficking of North Korean women in the border area of China and North Korea when they were detained. As you've no doubt heard, the two journalists have been sentenced to 12 years in a N. Korean labor camp, while people and governments around the world try their best to secure their release. more ›

After nearly two months of being detained in North Korea, Asian-American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling will allegedly be put to trial on June 4, according to the AP. The DPRK's Korean Central News Agency did not reveal any other details, including what charges the two face. If they are accused of illegal entry, they could spend up to three years in a labor camp. If they are found to have engaged in “espionage” or “hostility towards North Koreans,” they could add five to 10 years in prison onto their sentence. Lee and Ling were caught filming along the China-DPRK border in March. Both were working for Current TV. more ›

So,the Mountain Goats have a new album out and on it is a song called "Tianchi Lake." It's about the the crater lake at Changbai Shan, in Jilin Province, on the North Korean border. (More photos from our 2004 trip to Tianchi here.) more ›

Our second show for the day is the critically acclaimed documentary Seoul Train (featured on PBS) which offers a look at the estimated 250,000 North Korean refugees living underground in China today, who have braved untold dangers to escape a food and humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of 3 million back home. The camera follows several groups of North Korean refugees, some have chosen to forcibly make their way past the gates of the Japanese embassy in Beijing, others have chosen to attempt to send in a formal application to be recognised as refugees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and yet others have chosen to make their way to Mongolia, in the hopes of eventually getting to South Korea, their promised land. If they are arrested, the Chinese government (which sees them as illegal economic migrants and not refugees) will certainly repatriate them to North Korea where they will face punishment and execution. It also offers a fascinating look at what's been called the Underground Railroad, a covert network of multinational cells of relief workers, activists and volunteers including a South Korean pastor, Chun Ki-won, who's been dubbed the Asian Schindler. This show is amazing in the way it acquaints the viewer with the complexity of the issue, taking into account a wide range of divergent views, and even taking on the UNHCR for its supposed compliance with the Chinese government. Till today, the UNHCR has not saved a single North Korean refugee. more ›

This week on Shanghaiist Sunday Show, we turn on our eye to the refugee issue and bring you not just one but two documentaries. The first documentary is a show on Al Jazeera's 101 East which features Tibetan refugees trying to get out of China and the second one is a show on North Korean refugees trying to come into China. more ›

A prominent former Thai senator accused of sex crimes against four underage girls was sentenced to 36 years in prison on Tuesday, when an appeals court stiffened the sentence of a lower court. more ›

As ice is melting between North Korea and the United States, more and more Chinese businessmen have been rushing to the border with the secretive communist country, looking to cash in on its trade and investment potential. more ›

We just received news that North Korea has expressed its intention to attend the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. How exciting is that, people! more ›

Coming up on a year since Berdymukhamedov took power, the Internet is not really any more accessible than it was under Niyazov. There are only a handful of government-run Internet cafes in the capital, Ashgabat, which opened in March. more ›

World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday praised Vietnam as a "tremendous success story" in fighting poverty but said institutional reforms were needed as it seeks middle-income country status. more ›

For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day. more ›

Tickets for domestic Chinese flights may be cheap, but really, is it worth it? Last week, we told you about the China Eastern plane that blew out its tires while landing. And over the weekend, reports emerged of a China Southern plane that had its tail cone (the rear of the airplane's fuselage) fall to the ground "just before the plane was to taxi to the runway": more ›

On the same day that the "Dear Leader" of our friendly northeastern neighbour decided to press ahead with nuclear tests, a brave Singaporean entrepreneur announced his decision to invade the reclusive commie state with his brand of -- guess what -- sushi! more ›

Everyone is reporting about North Korea's apparent "successful" test of a nuclear weapon, which happened last night. more ›

"The Japanese have the kimono and the Koreans also have their traditional.clothing. But not the Han people, although they represent the largest of China's 56 ethnic groups," said Liu, who actively promotes cuture.

When we first visited Dandong in Liaoning province, our heart kind of went out to the little North Korean kids swimming in the Yalu River. Now we really feel sorry for them. Dandong's Xinjulang Paper Factory has been pumping 12,000 tons of concentrated waste into that river every day. The State Environmental Protection Authority has told the plant to stop production. This is all part of China's effort to publicly shame its worst polluters "amid concerns that the country's environmental problems have become so serious they are undermining economic growth and social stability": more ›

If you've been following media reports about North Korea, then chances are you've also heard stories of North Koreans slipping over the borders to China, or trying to scale the walls of embassies in Beijing in order to get asylum. For most refugees, this means ending up South Korea, but don't think that just by making out of the "hermit kingdom" into China means getting to the promised land -- China is quite willing to send them back, as happened recently in Yantai, when seven North Koreans entered an international school. The refugees included five women and two men. Four of them were from one family. There's a Chinese article about it (containing mostly the same info as the English link above) here. more ›

Admitted Luddite and one-time Shanghaiist contributor Paul French sent Shanghaiist, and several others, this email recently (or, knowing Paul, he had his secreatry send it). We thought we'd share: more ›