North Korea’s private arts tutoring boom grows even as farm mobilization season begins
Some North Korean students in North Pyongan province are skipping compulsory farm labor duty this rice-planting season by securing enrollment in school arts performance...
North Korea’s crackdown on school bribery fuels teacher backlash in North Hamgyong
North Korea's Ministry of Education has singled out North Hamgyong province for a sweeping anti-corruption drive after the province posted some of the country's...
North Korean freight smugglers arrested, then freed after paying massive bribes
Two young men in their 20s from Haeju city in South Hwanghae province built a lucrative illegal freight operation by smuggling goods aboard train...
North Korea replaces all foreign student dormitory staff at Kim Il Sung University
North Korea's ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) central committee ordered a full replacement of staff managing foreign student dormitories at Kim Il Sung...
North Korea mobilizes medical students for herb collection drives
North Korea has mobilized medical students at universities across North Pyongan province to collect medicinal herbs, drafting them into a state-driven push to expand...
North Korea’s wealthy keep using South Korean rice cookers despite crackdowns
Despite intensifying crackdowns on South Korean goods, North Korea's wealthy elite continue to use Cuckoo brand electric rice cookers, treating the South Korean appliances...
North Korea pushes boil-water order as spring disease season arrives
North Korean authorities are intensifying sanitation controls and disease-prevention propaganda to curb the spread of waterborne illnesses as temperatures rise in May 2026, but...
North Korea dispatches central party inspectors to Rason customs facility
A Workers' Party of Korea central committee inspection team descended without warning on the Rason Quarantine and Inspection Station in late April 2026, conducting...
Rising prices push North Korea housing costs out of reach for young couples
Housing costs across North Korea have surged two to four times their pre-pandemic levels, squeezing young couples out of the property market and prompting...
North Korean coal miners arrested for watching South Korean videos
Dozens of young coal miners at a state-run mining complex in South Pyongan province were arrested in February after a joint inspection found they...
