Secret police crackdown underway in border area
The secret police have reportedly launched a crackdown on its own people in the border region. With information leaks occurring frequently in areas along the...
Workplaces tasked with handing criminal suspects
North Korean police authorities have taken steps to delegate the handling of criminal suspects to workplaces. According to a source in North Hamgyong Province on...
Where does patriotism come from?
What does it mean to love one’s country? It means to feel pain when the country suffers, and joy when it thrives. It means to...
Why has Christianity become the religion of choice for most defectors?
“There’s no religious freedom in North Korea? What are you talking about—there are churches in North Korea. You know less about North Korea than I...
Border security supplies new phone detectors… ‘3 minutes, 5 meters’
North Korean security authorities have reportedly replaced and supplied new portable radio wave detectors to officers stationed along the border region with China. The move...
Locals subtly oppose Kim’s reforestation program… ‘Trees Are Planted, But They Don’t Grow’
Authorities in North Hamgyong Province are struggling to deal with the destruction of recently planted trees by local residents. Forestry officials in Hoeryong and other...
High school graduates forced to “volunteer” for frontline duty… 90% are children of laborers and farmers
Senior high school graduates in North Hwanghae Province are reportedly being coerced into volunteering for frontline border units. Authorities held pledging ceremonies for students in...
What now for the North Korean human rights movement with the loss of US support?
The experience of the North Korean human rights movement resembles that of Sisyphus, the mythological king of Corinth condemned in the underworld to roll a...
Crackdown on travelers in border area… Officials carrying confidential documents arrested
North Korea’s main law enforcement agency is currently conducting an intensive crackdown on people traveling to border areas for business trips. According to a report...
How the social system deteriorates
What is the function of a society? Each country, each person may answer this in a different way, but there is one thing we can...
North Korea harangues people to exhibit “noble and civilized” standards
Citizens throughout North Korea this month are studying how to “thoroughly establish” noble and civilized socialist moral standards. This is the theme this month of...
Why does North Korea criminalize sex?
The regime in North Korea makes people consider their natural desires shameful. It makes us feel guilty about the desire for sex or the instinct...
The delusion of home ownership
In North Korea, it is not possible to buy and sell land or property. We all have no doubt about that. All houses and buildings...
How do North Korean workers in China and Russia see South Korea’s impeachment crisis?
North Koreans in China and Russia are showing varied reactions about the uncertainty in South Korea following the martial law declaration by President Yoon Suk-yeol...
Manpower shortage delays planting of this year’s spring wheat and barley
Following a directive on February 27 to agricultural institutions nationwide to complete planting by mid-March, the sowing of spring wheat and barley would appear to...
Changing preferences for military service, Strategic Force Command is the most popular
With authorities intensively conducting its spring draft through the first ten days of March, it emerges that the most preferred units for young people this...
Dozens sent to gulag, border region crackdown dampens illegal trade with China
A six-week crackdown of illegal activity in the northern border area this winter netted over 30 people and has cast a pall over the region...
The capricious dictator
What kind of person is Kim Jong-un? As a former subject, I am genuinely curious about who he really is. But ordinary people like me...