Doualy Xaykaothao

Credit Min Soh / NPR

Doualy Xaykaothao covers breaking news from Asia for NPR News. She's based in Bangkok, Thailand, and her reports can be heard across all NPR News programs.

Xaykaothao joined NPR in 1999 as a production assistant for Morning Edition and has since worked as an NPR producer, editor, director and reporter for NPR's award-winning programs. As a producer for NPR's Newscast Unit, she was a member of the team receiving the 2001 Peabody Award for its coverage of the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Xaykaothao began reporting about anti-war protests from Seoul, South Korea. A year later, Xaykaothao was in the Phang Nga region of Thailand reporting on the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In 2006, Xaykaothao served as a fellow for the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS with a focus on women inside Nepal's 10 year civil war. Xaykaothao was also an Annenberg Fellow for NPR member station KPCC in Los Angeles in 2007, and was part of the reporting team to receive a LA Press Club Award for breaking coverage of the California wildfires. By 2009, Xaykaothao was in Indonesia reporting on the earthquake that devastated Padang. In 2010, she reported about North Korea's deadly attack on a South Korean warship. When Japan was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, Xaykaothao was the first NPR reporter to reach Fukushima to report on the triple disasters in 2011.

Xaykaothao is Lao-Hmong American. She was born in Vientiane, Laos, but raised in France and the United States. She attended college in upstate New York, where she specialized in television, radio, political science, and ethnic studies. Her radio career began at Harlem community radio station WHCR 90.3 FM, where she volunteered as news-reader. Later, at Pacifica Radio's WBAI 99.5 FM, she worked for the station's resident film critic, the late Paul Wunder. At Pacifica, she also coordinated and produced Asia Pacific Forum, a program on politics, culture and arts inside Asian American communities, as well as missed stories from Asia.

For those who are curious, Doualy Xaykaothao is pronounced "dwah-hlee sigh-kow-tao."

Music

3:58 am

Sat October 5, 2013

Run River North Stays The Course — And Finds Success

Credit Doualy Xaykaothao

John Chong (from left), Sally Kang, Joe Chun, Alex Hwang, Jennifer Rim and Daniel Chae of Run River North.

By Doualy Xaykaothao

Originally published on Fri November 22, 2013 2:36 pm

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3:48 am

Sat April 27, 2013

Cambodian Americans Celebrate New Year, But Honor Grim History

By Doualy Xaykaothao

Originally published on Sat April 27, 2013 12:57 pm

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Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Today in Long Beach, California, Cambodian-Americans are celebrating their new year with traditional foods, dance and songs. But the festivities also coincide with the anniversary of the Cambodian genocide. During the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror between 1975 and 1979, cities were emptied and nearly one-fourth of the population was executed, starved or worked to death. Doualy Xaykaothao reports.

1:34 pm

Fri March 23, 2012

Along Korea's DMZ, No Sign That Tensions Are Easing

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Credit Lee Jae-Won / Reuters/Landov

With a new leader in North Korea, the U.S. and South Korea are watching for clues of his policies. But so far tensions have not eased along the demilitarized zone. Here, two North Korean soldiers look across at a South Korean soldier on Dec. 2.

Credit Eric Talmadge / AP

Lt. Col. Ed Taylor speaks as he stands behind a wall of sandbags overlooking North Korea from the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone, or DMZ. Taylor commands a joint American-South Korean battalion along the frontier.

Credit Susan Walsh / AP

President Obama looks toward North Korea from a post on the South Korean side of the DMZ, the tense military border between the two Koreas, on Sunday. At right is U.S. Lt. Col. Ed Taylor, commander of the U.N. Command Security Battalion-Joint Security Area.

Credit Doualy Xaykaothao / NPR

Lt. Col. Edward Taylor commands the only U.S. and South Korean battalion on the Korean Peninsula. He stands near the Korean armistice line, with North Korea behind him.

By Doualy Xaykaothao

Originally published on Sun March 25, 2012 2:35 pm

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Cold winds blow through pine trees and across nearby mountains. On the horizon are guard posts and cameras. There's little movement, except for wildlife.

U.S. Lt. Col. Ed Taylor, lives and works on the Korean armistice line that has divided North and South for almost six decades. He even sleeps in a bed right next to North Korea.

"I cannot compare it to anything I've ever done. And I say that with 23 years in the Army and two deployments to Iraq," Taylor says.

6:00 am

Sat March 10, 2012

Boats Ashore, Tsunami Scars Japanese Fishing Town

By Doualy Xaykaothao

Originally published on Sat March 10, 2012 11:49 am

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Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. One year ago this weekend, Japan was battered by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. One of the places hardest hit was the coastal community of Yuriage. What was once a beautiful fishing village, and home to a bustling community of thousands, is now a desolate and deserted place. Doualy Xaykaothao reported from there shortly after the earthquake, and has just returned to file this report.

(SOUNDBITE OF SEAGULLS)

1:41 pm

Fri March 9, 2012

For Kids In Japan, Adjusting To A Changed World

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Credit Doualy Xaykaothao / NPR

Students at Tohoku Chosen, an elementary and junior high school for North Koreans in Sendai City, now take dance classes in the school's cafeteria because their main building was destroyed when the earthquake struck northeast Japan last March.

Credit Doualy Xaykaothao / NPR

Students draw during art class at Imagine Japan, an English-language school in Sendai City, Japan. Immediately following last year's earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan, a teacher observed some of the kids drawing faces and bodies with black markers.

By Doualy Xaykaothao

Originally published on Fri March 9, 2012 8:22 pm

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Teacher Dave Rowlands is talking to his students in a kindergarten class at Imagine Japan, an English-language school in the Miyagi Prefecture of Sendai City. The school is just a short walk from pre-fabricated homes built for families who lost more than just property in the earthquake and tsunami last year.

"What came after the earthquake, was what?" Rowlands asks. "A tidal wave. In Japanese, what do we say? Or in English, actually, tsunami is now used around the world in many languages. Tsunami. We kind of leave the 't' off of there."

10:01 pm

Wed March 7, 2012

With Radiation, Doubt Grows In Fukushima Farms

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Credit Wally Santana / AP

A woman picks carrots on her farm as she explains her fears that no one will buy them since the radiation fallout in March 2011 in Fukushima, Japan. A year later, challenges persist for farmers in the region.

Credit Doualy Xaykaothao for NPR

Yoshiko Watanabe stands near where her roadside vegetable stand used to be in Kawauchi village in Japan's Fukushima prefecture.

By Doualy Xaykaothao

Originally published on Fri March 9, 2012 2:00 pm

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The mountain village of Kawauchi lies partly inside the area deemed unsafe because of high levels of radiation in Japan's Fukushima prefecture. Chiharu Kubota uses a high-pressure water gun to hose down buildings there.

Radiation is still leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns immediately after last year's earthquake and tsunami.

'Nothing Is Better'

4:48 am

Wed January 4, 2012

N. Korean Kaesong Workers Mourn Kim Jong Il

By Doualy Xaykaothao

Originally published on Wed January 4, 2012 10:36 am

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Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Throughout this morning, we're tracking the results of Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses, where Mitt Romney edged Rick Santorum by just eight votes. We're also following other news, including developments from a country that changed its leader with no election at all.

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