Residents complain about Pyongyang’s fancy new apartments
It has been three years since people moved into their apartments in the futuristic 83-story Songhwa Street Main Tower in Pyongyang and they’re not happy. ...
North Korean defectors rally in support of Venezuelan pro-democracy protesters
Representatives of leading South Korean civil society organizations and North Korean defectors gathered in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on August 17 to condemn Maduro’s attempts...
Ministries under pressure to meet research goals and improve conditions for scientists and engineers
The government in North Korea appears to be making a big push on science and technology to underpin its economic development plans. This has been...
Evidence of slavery: North Korean workers evaluation
Formal evaluation of employees may be a regular feature of corporate life, but the North Korean version, given the virtues and transgressions it highlights, and...
600 escapees repatriated from China are sentenced to life in the gulag
Six hundred North Korean escapees who were rounded up last year in China and forcibly repatriated have been given life sentences in political prison camps...
Pyongyang cracks down on Russian cultural content
North Korea has ordered a ban on Russian media and started cracking down on Russian cultural content. The move flies in the face of the...
North Korea develops agricultural drones
North Korea has introduced a pesticide-spraying drone that it claims can do the work of 35 farm laborers. The drone, called the Jongdari-101, can carry...
A virgin raped in a prison camp
We won’t say her full name, for reasons which will become obvious, but Choi was not really a defector. Nor was she caught by the...
Kim comes to the rescue of flood victims
Kim Jong-un personally directed rescue operations last weekend following severe flooding in the city of Sinuiju and Uiju county on the Chinese border, according to...
Remote education starts to spread in the provinces
Defectors imagine a day when they might be able to have video calls with their families in North Korea via Zoom. It is a hope...
South Korea needs to take action to deal with Pyongyang’s hackers
South Korean policy makers are calling for urgent measures to deal with hacking by North Korea. "The regime in Pyongyang views cyber attacks as a...
Russians promote weirdness of North Korea for tourism
When 200 young Russians arrived at Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport on Monday this week, they were excited to touch down in a strange and exotic place...
Do recent changes presage an imminent wave of mass defections?
The arrival in South Korea of a senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba, which was confirmed earlier this month by Seoul’s intelligence agency, highlights...
North Korea trade fair in Russia violates sanctions
A North Korean trade fair in Russia at the end of June directly challenged sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council. The event, held in...
Futuristic new tower unveiled in Pyongyang
A futuristic new tower unveiled in Pyongyang symbolizes the regime’s ambitions in science and technology, but whether actual capability goes beyond aspirational architecture remains to...
Overseas experts worry how North Korea might use AI
North Korea is using artificial intelligence to assist its extensive hacking activity and appears to be exploring the possibility of developing its own generative AI,...
North Koreans forced to attend war anniversary lectures
The Workers’ Party is forcing government and ordinary citizens to attend weekly lectures this month commemorating the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 to...
Are the upgraded Russia-North Korea ties just skin-deep?
Russia and North Korea last week upgraded their relationship from “friendly” to a strategic partnership with a mutual defense commitment that has prompted concerns about...