Jieun Baek is an author and scholar whose work examines authoritarian governance, regime stability, elite political behavior, and information access in closed societies, with particular focus on North Korea and Burma. She is currently a J.D. candidate at Georgetown University Law Center and will be a 2027 summer associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, DC.

She is the author of North Korea’s Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society (Yale University Press, 2016) and Privileged but Powerless: How North Korean Elite Grievances Reveal the Regime’s Greatest Weakness (Yale University Press, 2026). Her forthcoming books include North Korea’s Provinces: Hidden Layers Beyond Pyongyang (Yale University Press) and a co-authored volume on North Korea’s ICT landscape with Nat Kretchun and Martyn Williams (Columbia University Press).

Her research draws on more than fifteen years of in-depth fieldwork and engagement with hard-to-reach populations, including defectors, dissidents, and individuals operating within tightly controlled political systems. This site features her books, writing, and public work.