North Korea's Secret Stories

North Korea’s Secret Stories is a series written by Daily NK journalist Kim Jeong Hun that explores underreported areas of North Korean society, highlighting stories that the North Korean government does not want the world to know.

lecture, whistleblower, russia, overseas labor, overseas workers

Refused asylum to S. Korea, N. Korean defector dies on the streets of Russia

As the world lived in fear of COVID-19 in the year 2020, a North Korean (identified here as "A") managed to escape from a...

The story of one N. Korean woman’s tragic death in a reeducation camp

One day in early 2019, a public trial took place in front of the Provincial Performing Troupe Plaza in North Pyongan Province. That day, five...
russia, repatriated, workers, laborers

The tragic fate of N. Korean workers in Russia’s Sakhalin Island

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world in 2020, North Korean construction workers on Russia's Sakhalin Island were forced into endless, precarious efforts to...

Kaechon prison camp works its inmates to death

The North Korean authorities keep men and women serving life sentences in the Hamhung and Kaechon concentration camps in separate quarters in accordance with...
researcher

N. Korean scientist executed in 2021 for COVID-19 research

In September 2021, a researcher at a bioengineering laboratory under the North Korean State Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang examined samples taken from a...
imports, oil, corruption, shipyard

Nampo’s 2021 lockdown led to tragedy for many people

In early 2020, as North Korea implemented a maritime lockdown in response to COVID-19, the port city of Nampo suffered a steep drop in...
countryside, rural, town

How N. Korea’s COVID controls led to tragedy in a small mountain town

In 2020, North Korea enforced COVID quarantines even in the small mountain town of Chasong County, Chagang Province. The death of a woman surnamed...
meeting wartime territorial waters

N. Korean veteran disappears after speaking out against harsh COVID protocols

In autumn 2020, when North Korea implemented broad-ranging nationwide lockdowns in response to COVID-19, North Koreans faced limits in everything they did. Doing business...
mooncakes, discipline

The impact of N. Korea’s harsh lockdown of Onsong County in 2022 still reverberates...

In the summer of 2022, North Korean authorities imposed a strict lockdown in Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province, to prevent the spread of the...
covid quarantine

N. Korea installed facial recognition devices at major train stations during height of COVID

In 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Korean government sought technologies that could help it better track the movements of...

Recent Articles