Tag: crackdowns
Pyongyang tenants haul water up dark stairwells
A worsening Pyongyang power shortage has left the capital’s new high-rises without elevators or running water in fall 2026. Rather than fixing the problem,...
Listening to how North Koreans talk
A film I watched recently added Korean subtitles to a conversation between North Korean characters, as though they were speaking a foreign language. Eight...
South Korean goods shut out of Hyesan customs trade
Chinese goods are pouring into North Korea through the customs office in Hyesan this November 2026, yet traders who built their businesses on South...
Trader loses all her medicine after defying police
A Chongjin medicine trader lost her entire stock in October 2026 after refusing a police officer’s demand for free drugs, winning back her goods...
Hoeryong lectures target Chinese phone users
North Korean intelligence officers in North Hamgyong province used neighborhood lectures in mid-October 2026 to attack secret users of Chinese mobile phones. Visiting towns...
Smuggling ban drives North Korean units to cheap Chinese work
North Korea’s foreign currency-earning units are scrambling for low-paying contract manufacturing work from China in October 2026. A prolonged crackdown on cross-border smuggling has...
North Koreans dodge style patrols as constitution enshrines the socialist lifestyle
North Koreans are finding quiet ways around the socialist lifestyle crackdown in 2026, even after Kim Jong Un’s government wrote the campaign into the...
Farm workers balk as Pyongyang pushes electronic payment cards
North Korean authorities are pressing South Pyongan province farm workers to load their savings onto electronic payment cards, saying the cashless shift will prevent...
North Korea searches fishing boats for hidden radios along its Yellow...
North Korea has launched a sweeping inspection of fishing boats along the Yellow Sea coast of South Hwanghae province in October 2026 that targets...
Defector families in North Korea turn away remittance brokers, threaten to...
Families of North Korean defectors are turning remittance brokers away at the door in 2026, refusing cash from relatives abroad and threatening to report...
