The dictator’s women
One day in July 2012, North Korea’s state media made a grand announcement. The First Lady, Ri Sol-ju, wife of the new leader Kim Jong-un,...
North Korea does it “our way”
Every country has its own traditions, history, and way of doing things. In North Korea, they call this “our way.” The emotions people feel about...
One party vs. multiple parties
The most cited difference between countries that are socialist or capitalist is the extent to which individual citizens are able to own the means of...
Buying time to earn money
Suppression comes in many forms. There is suppression of association, suppression of travel, and suppression of speech. But of these, the most pervasive form of...
When true self-reliance turns on the lights
What image best captures the core difference between the two Koreas? Perhaps it is that famous photograph of the peninsula at night with the stark...
How media undermines truth-seeking
Having grown up in North Korea where the media is so uniformly one-sided that we hesitate to call the stories in them “news,” I was...
Singing of our friendly parent
Friendly Parent. This is the title of that new song in North Korea that is going viral. How warm and familiar they are, those words,...
Defectors and the search for happiness
"Are you happy? Is life in South Korea more satisfying than in North Korea?" Ninety percent of the people I meet for the first time...