The long arm of Pyongyang: Secret police use family ties to hunt defectors
North Korea’s feared secret police is using brokers who funnel money from defectors to their families in the impoverished country to recruit them and persuade...
Kim Jong-un’s diplomacy aims to strengthen ties with Russia and China, rather than play them off one another
Top Chinese official Wang Huning visited Pyongyang last week, indicating that the restoration of North Korea–China relations is moving forward. Wang, a member of the...
Can technology safely connect North Koreans to the outside world?
In North Korea, information is not a public good to be managed. It is a threat to be contained. By restricting access to the internet,...
North Korea calls China a ‘brother.’ So why does it erase China from history?
A few days ago, as I watched television images of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pyongyang, I was struck by a familiar dissonance. The...
Kim inspects a new station for “tourists” that locals won’t be able to use.
When Kim Jong-un inspected a new station on the country’s east coast last month, his visit highlighted a strange feature of North Korea. That is...
Pyongyang’s lights are North Korea’s greatest lie
To outsiders, North Korea seems to be changing and for the better. More cars fill the streets. Young people carry smartphones. New apartment buildings glow...
New destroyer signals North Korea’s push for a nuclear navy
North Korea commissioned a new multipurpose destroyer on June 23 at Nampho Port, according to the state-run KCNA news agency. The Choe Hyon, named after...
North Korea tests new weaponry for use against South Korea
On June 25 - the day his grandfather invaded South Korea in 1950 to start the Korean War - Kim Jong-un attended an “important weapons...
Interview: The ordinary defector who fights for human rights in the U.S.
As a defector living in the United States, Cho Bo-eol attended a number of pro-North Korean events - to protest against them. That was when...
Cry unification: the word that refuses to die
Last weekend, while watching news reports about North Korea's latest policy shift, I was stunned into silence. Before my escape, I grew up with the...
Kim Jong-un signals military overhaul as North Korea pushes modern warfare and ideological control
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has signaled a new phase in the modernization of the Korean People's Army, combining military reform with intensified ideological control...
North Korea rejects denuclearization and broadens the Indo-Pacific confrontation
North Korea has sharply condemned the Quad grouping of the United States, Japan, Australia and India, using a recent joint statement by the four countries...
North Korea isn’t building the next ChatGPT. It’s building something else.
When people hear that North Korea is investing in AI, they often imagine a familiar race to build the next ChatGPT, the next breakthrough AI...
Kim Jong-un inspects new facility as North Korea openly asserts its status as a nuclear state
North Korea has revealed a new nuclear production facility in what analysts say is a deliberate effort to showcase its determination to expand its nuclear...
Tactical weapons test signals more complex threats on the Korean peninsula amid growing Russia factor
North Korea’s latest test of advanced tactical weapons highlights a broader effort to modernize its artillery and missile forces, potentially creating more complex military challenges...
When seeing the world makes “My Country is the Best” harder to sing
There is a song beloved by many people in North Korea. It is called My Country Is the Best. Even the flowers blooming in a...
A North Korean team wins a trophy in South Korea. The victory raised harder questions about freedom.
Sign up here. North Korea’s Naegohyang Women’s Football Club lifted a trophy on South Korean soil. On May 23, in the AFC Women’s Champions League...
Who created “Oppasi”? How tyranny thrives on power and silence
What is it that makes a person endlessly tyrannical? Is it the power that supports him? Or is it our own weakness in submitting to...