A prisoner is set free from a camp of no return… Does this signal a shift in policy?
The release of a woman from a “total control zone” labor camp, where prisoners are normally held until they die, has set her neighborhood buzzing...
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...
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...
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...
Students and women mobilized for large-scale military exercises
North Korea last week began nationwide military drills involving various army units, along with civil defense forces, Worker-Peasant Red Guards, and the Red Youth Guards....
Weapons factory workers receive significant pay rise
North Korea has significantly increased the salaries of workers in munitions factories in an apparent attempt to boost morale and raise production in its lucrative...
Notifications of soldiers killed in action down amid negative public sentiment
Following a surge in notifications of soldiers killed in action in Russia at the end of last year, such notifications appear to have decreased in...
New fence blocks well-trodden escape route into China
China is installing a formidable barbed wire fence with the latest surveillance cameras along a section of its border with North Korea that is used...
New version of Pyongyang smartphone resembles the iPhone
North Korea has launched a new smartphone with an iPhone lookalike design. According to internal materials recently obtained by this publication, the Pyongyang 2438 phone...
North Koreans argue as to whether dying for the fatherland is the “duty of the military” amid news of soldiers killed in Ukraine war
North Korean residents justify the sacrifice of soldiers deployed to Russia, saying dying for the fatherland is their duty. In some areas of North Korea's...
North Hamgyong parents receive death notices of sons killed in the military… From 8th Corps and 91st Defense Command
Parents in North Korea's North Hamgyong Province are being notified of the deaths of their sons in the military, according to reports. A report in...