North Korea’s COVID quarantine was a performance built on fear and deception
One night during the COVID-19 pandemic, while I was still living under quarantine in North Korea, I saw a group of people gathered around a...
The unspoken burden of being a woman in North Korea
A few days ago, I was interviewed about the lives of women in North Korea. At first, I thought I would simply speak about what...
Women footballers return to the South but an invisible DMZ remains
Sign up here. As May warms the land, one piece of news has lingered in my mind. On May 20, women from a North Korean...
“Set your eyes upon the world” the regime said, so why does watching a TV drama carry a 10-year sentence?
Sign up here. What is life? For me, it is a journey of discovery, of understanding what I am good at and enjoy, and then engaging...
Why North Koreans are unable to understand South Korea
Born and raised in North Korean society, for many years my world was confined within its borders. I lived, breathed, and believed in the narratives...
Rising oil prices send ordinary North Koreans into survival mode
When I escaped from North Korea and came to South Korea in May 2023, I had no way of knowing when or how deeply the...
Is Kim Ju-ae being groomed for a support role?
One question that keeps surfacing in the news these days is whether Kim Ju-ae will be anointed the official successor to her father, North Korean...
Kim Jong-un’s emphasis on women is core part of regime survival strategy
For Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, women are “incomparably beautiful beings” who are indispensable to the revolution and to nation-building. This was how he described them...
Fate of two POWs held in Ukraine hands in the balance
These two North Korean POWs in Ukrainian custody face a danger that is not theoretical. It is an escalating reality. Russia has already attempted to...
Can ordinary joy awaken the people of North Korea?
Today I went to the playground with my children. It’s already been three years since I came to South Korea, but everyday moments like this...
Remembering the Yeonpyeong Island bombardment
At 2.30 p.m. on November 23, 2010, the peace on the small, quiet, South Korean island of Yeonpyeong in the West Sea, was shattered in...
The people at the front are the poorest: The life of a Party member
Today, watching the news, I suddenly found myself thinking about North Korea again. There was the propaganda, once again declaring that “the Party devotes itself...
What Venezuela taught me about North Korea
When U.S. President Donald J. Trump ordered the military strike against Venezuela and the arrest of its president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, he acted...
Unusually, no mention of South Korea or the U.S. in Kim Jong-un’s new year address
In a major departure for a new year address, Kim Jong-un made not a single reference this time to South Korea or the United States....
Will Kim Ju-ae be anointed as the successor this year?
When Kim Jong-un visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on New Year’s Day with his wife and daughter to pay his respects to his...
For children, learning loyalty to the leader is more important than classes
Children born in North Korea grow up with the word “loyalty” from their earliest years. This word does not refer simply to moral education or...
Party Central Committee convenes 13th plenary meeting in Pyongyang
The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) convened the 13th plenary meeting of its 8th Central Committee on December 9 in Pyongyang, according to the...
The hidden secret of winter military training… Supply burden on officers’ families
This month, winter descends on the peninsula bringing freezing temperatures and biting winds. For North Korean soldiers, this means the start of winter training. The...