Secret police start annual propaganda performances
Propaganda teams organized by the secret police this month started touring the provinces and staging performances about attempted coups to educate the public in how...
A construction worker in Russia in the time of COVID
In Part 2 of his story, Kang, a North Korean laborer in Russia who escaped to South Korea at the end of 2022, recounts his...
When the enemy of my enemy becomes my friend: the South Koreans who scratch Kim Jong-un’s back
In a peculiar dynamic, North Korean media has been reporting on the activities of certain leftist lawmakers and activists in South Korea in a way...
Students under pressure to erase South Korea from textbooks before the school year starts
Since Kim Jong-un declared South Korea to be his implacable foe, authorities in North Korea have been issuing instructions to have all references to the...
Why North Korean news media don’t report news
One day in Pyongyang, in the summer of 1993, I was walking along Tongil Street in the city’s Rangrang district, heading for a bus stop,...
Slaves in uniform: The secret behind North Korean’s ten-year mandatory military service
Around North Korea in late February, there were grand groundbreaking ceremonies for large-scale housing construction projects and new factories. The showy events kicked off this...
A North Korean laborer in Russia tells his story
The author recently interviewed a North Korean defector who, despite UN sanctions which forbid North Korea dispatching laborers overseas, spent several years near St. Petersburg...
North Korean defectors propose democracy activist Kim Seong-min for the National Assembly
North Korean defector organizations have issued an appeal to political parties preparing for next month’s National Assembly elections to include defectors in their line up...
Shouldn’t Kim Ju-ae be in school?
As Kim Jong-un intensifies the confrontation with South Korea, he appears to be raising the profile of his 11-year-old daughter, Ju-ae. Is he positioning her...
Kim’s saber-rattling looks like a prolonged childish tantrum
With Kim Jong-un now walking a path of military escalation, defense experts in South Korea and the United States are assessing the impact on their...
Forced repatriation: The suffering mothers and their abandoned children
This is Part Two of a four-part series based on the writer’s personal experience. See Part One here. In the 17th century, when Korean women...
With her Mount Paektu bloodline, there is nothing preventing Kim Ju-ae being the next leader
The Korea Institute for National Unification, a government think tank in Seoul, has released a report saying that, considering the increased role of women within...
Pro-North activist group in South Korea dissolves itself
A prominent civic group in South Korea dedicated to reunification and with counterparts in North Korea and overseas, announced its dissolution after a general meeting...