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...
Excessive security annoys Putin aides and disturbs citizens in Pyongyang
Several senior Russian officials were undiplomatically expelled from a meeting room by North Korean security during last week’s visit to Pyongyang by Vladimir Putin, underscoring...
New system to reward people for reporting on their neighbors
North Korea is taking a leaf out of the capitalist book to incentivize citizens to turn in people engaged in illegal economic activity. While betraying...
Will wheat solve the food problem?
Kim Jong-un is trying to shift food production over from corn over to rice, wheat, and barley, and the party’s daily rodong sinmun is reporting,...
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...
Phone flashlights at a concert: when a photo shows the opposite of what it seems to
At an outdoor event celebrating the 112th birthday of Kim Il-sung in April, students in the audience turned on their phone flashlights. The moment, captured...
Is the next leader being prepared?
In the eighteen months since Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Ju-ae, first appeared in public, her deification as the next leader seems to be underway. One indication...
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...
The party struggles to rein in rebellious and wayward youth
North Koreans are considered modern-day slaves. They are led by one man, Kim Jong-un and forbidden to live or even think in ways that he,...
Kim Yo-jong’s whopper: Poop balloons represent “People’s Freedom of Expression”
North Korea launched 300 more balloons full of trash and poop in South Korea’s direction this weekend. The latest tit-for-tat barrage began at the end...
Home delivery in North Korea
With around five million people, or 19% of the population, owning mobile phones, delivery service through online platforms is making its appearance in North Korea. ...
It’s better to be a hammer or sickle than a brush
The ruling Workers' Party emblem of North Korea is different from other communist parties in that it includes a brush alongside the hammer and sickle...
Balloons full of poop launched over South Korea needed Kim Jong-un’s direct approval
With North Korea launching balloons full of excrement into South Korea in recent days, the regime seems to be pretending it doesn’t have the power...
“I am a teacher, not a tax collector”
“I am a teacher, not a tax collector,” the teacher explained after announcing he was quitting. “I can no longer do this even if I...
Kim Jong-un portrait appears on classroom walls in rebuilt party school
When Kim Jong-un participated in the opening ceremony of the new Central School of the Workers' Party of Korea, the event was conducted on a...
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,...
Was there almost a second Korean War in 1980?
South Korea this week marks the 44th anniversary of protests in Gwangju, where over 200 civilians were killed by martial law forces suppressing what was...