The impact of Kim Jong Un’s order in late 2020 to “sound the guns”
Before North Korea's government passed the "Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act" in December 2020, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued an order...
Was Ipo Village really ground zero for N. Korea’s COVID outbreak?
In early June 2022, a man surnamed Choe, the chief of the military medical department of the Second Division of the First Corps -...
The tragic story of a North Korean “defector hunter”
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in Korean in November 2021.
In early November 2012, North Korea's Ministry of State Security (MSS) made it...
Behind the idyllic-looking lives of North Korea’s nuclear weapons researchers
After announcing plans to upgrade North Korea's nuclear arsenal at the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in early 2021, Kim Jong...
Former N. Korean defector hunter reflects on her experiences
In September 2018, a woman in her late 30s lay on her side in a safe house of the North Hamgyong Province state security...
N. Korean teacher replaced after encouraging competition among students
On Aug. 31 of last year, the teaching staff at an elementary school in Taegwan County, North Pyongan Province, nervously gathered for an emergency...
N. Korea still forbids women from setting foot on naval vessels
Next year, South Korea will achieve a historic national first by deploying female navy personnel onboard its submarines. In doing so, South Korea would...
A look behind N. Korea’s clumsy efforts to improve its birthrate
At the Third Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Party Central Committee in June 2021, Kim Jong Un announced that “creating a better environment for...
N. Korean smuggling of S. Korean goods never stopped during the pandemic
This article is part of a series written by Daily NK journalist Kim Jeong Yoon entitled “North Korea’s Secret Stories.”
One day in November 2020,...
A look behind N. Korea’s schemes to entice foreigners to stay in the country
In 2017, an international train bound for Sinuiju was waiting to depart from a station in Pyongyang.
“In ten minutes, this train will depart from...
