Sticking your head out between the bars, What is the explanation for the new Yalu River cruise?
North Korea has been running river cruises since April along the Yalu River that forms the border with China in a development that is so...
What will bring change to North Korea?
Once thought of as the most rigid of societies where change was not possible under the heavy grip of dictatorship and indoctrination, North Korea has...
North Korea under lockdown: My COVID experience (Part 6)
Everything started changing in North Korea in January 2020, when the border was suddenly closed. At first, we thought it would just be temporary, that...
Evolving North Korean rights abuses – state-sponsored human trafficking
Young North Korean men sent to fight Russia’s war in Ukraine are caught up in a new kind of modern-day slavery. They have no idea...
The end of free medical care: My COVID experience in North Korea (Part 5)
During the pandemic, we would often see soldiers on TV and in movies in protective suits handing out medicine and checking people’s temperatures during the pandemic.
Marathons, memes, and misunderstanding: The West’s flawed view of North Korea
On April 6, when Scottish YouTuber Lewis Buchan set off through the streets with thousands of other runners at the start of the annual Pyongyang...
My COVID experience in North Korea (Part 4)
Most people naturally assume that when you get sick, you can go to the hospital, get a prescription, receive treatment, maybe even get vaccinated. But in North Korea, none of that was taken for granted.
How pro-North Korean activists and their friends tried to suppress a human rights documentary
By Lawrence Peck When Leo McCarey, director and producer of “Going My Way,” starring Bing Crosby as a Catholic priest, was testifying before Congress and...
As young people embrace the finger heart, the regime is yet to respond
Korea’s finger heart, arm heart, and cheek heart gestures have recently gained wide global popularity. Now, reports suggest that even in North Korea, they have...
My COVID experience in North Korea (Part 3)
To explain how North Korea initially responded to COVID, I originally planned to talk about the healthcare system, but then I came across the story...
Food warehouse robbed on military base… Inside job suspected
A recent case of theft at a military warehouse has prompted investigators to suspect the military was itself involved. According to sources contacted in North...
My COVID experience in North Korea (Part 2)
During COVID-19, an enormous amount of “filth” washed ashore. Many of these were strange items we had never seen in North Korea before. Some refrigerators were huge — unbelievably large ones — and yes, even refrigerators floated in from the sea.
Insight into a totalitarian, seditious mindset: What was said and applauded at a pro-North Korean, anti-American conference in New York
Given the ambitious title of the event, observers would have expected speakers at the "People's Summit for Korea" in New York City last month to...
My COVID experience in North Korea (Part 1)
Growing up in Haeju, in a coastal military area in North Korea’s South Hwanghae Province, Kim Yumi was able to secretly watch South Korean news...
Kim permits private car ownership… but not Benz and Lexus
After earlier allowing ordinary citizens to own their own cars, the government has taken high-end foreign luxury brands off the list of permitted vehicles. According...
The Indo-Pacific 80 years on from the nuclear bombs on Japan
August 6 and 9 this year mark the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...