{"id":57544,"date":"2024-01-25T17:43:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T08:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=57544"},"modified":"2024-01-25T17:43:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T08:43:30","slug":"north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid the resumption of person-to-person travel between North Korea and China, North Korean officials are rotating out some of the North Korean trade officials who are assigned to work overseas. Those movements are leading some to predict that North Korean imports to and exports from China will pick up this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, North Korea is tightening its grip on trade representatives working overseas for fear of ideological backsliding. Daily NK has learned that the North Korean authorities are stepping up their ideological policing by subjecting trade officials to random searches of their mobile phones and homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

A North Korean trade representative in China told Daily NK in a recent interview that the authorities\u2019 surveillance makes it hard to even meet with Chinese traders. Agents from the Ministry of State Security<\/a> are always following him around to monitor everyone he meets and everything they talk about.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the trade representative said he has to pay onerous customs duties even though he is importing goods desired by the authorities, which makes it tough to turn a profit in his business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read on for Daily NK\u2019s interview with the trade representative.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily NK: We’re curious about what kind of Chinese items you usually import to North Korea.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWe get whatever the state wants and send it home [to North Korea]. We\u2019ve been handling a lot of farming equipment since the end of last year, but there are any number of things: automobile parts, televisions, and computers. We\u2019ve also been moving a lot of electronics recently after receiving orders for electronic goods. The most imported items change all the time. We were moving a lot of edible stuff\u2014rice, alcohol, fruit, and processed food\u2014through early 2023 and the middle of the year. But nowadays, we aren\u2019t importing a lot of things to eat or drink. That\u2019s because the government wants a lot of machinery and electronics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily NK: Is this your first time overseas?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first time going anywhere that\u2019s not in North Korea.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily NK: What\u2019s the best part about leaving?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I enjoy seeing the world. At first, everything in China was just amazing. It was all so shocking\u2014I found myself gawking at things. The occasional dinners I have with Chinese traders bring home how different things are from back home. Taste aside, you can tell how abundant things are. Even so, that amazing feeling of being overseas wears off pretty quickly. If anything, I feel less able to speak my mind here in China than when I was back in North Korea. State security agents are always tagging along, which makes it hard to meet traders and present our requests. It\u2019s not like we\u2019re trying to do anything sketchy. All we want is to have access to foreign websites and stay in touch with traders so we can fill out the government\u2019s orders with high-quality items at a cheap price. But we get accused of reactionary behavior whenever we\u2019re caught doing anything, and that\u2019s not helpful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily NK: Were surveillance and control the hardest parts about working as a North Korean trade representative in China?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother problem was our limited access to funds. Here in China, prices are high, and a close inspection shows that a lot of products are worse quality than you\u2019d think. It\u2019s really hard to buy good products on our budget. When you find something of decent quality, you have to pay 30% upfront for the contract. Suppose we can come up with the down payment somehow. After the goods are shipped to North Korea, we\u2019re supposed to pay the remainder of the cost right away, but we often find ourselves in a bind because funds are delayed. Chinese vendors don\u2019t like to deal with people who aren\u2019t prompt in their payments. You have to pay up right away if you want to keep doing business and build trust with a good trader. It\u2019s hard to maintain a good relationship when you\u2019re short on funds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily NK: We understand the volume of trade between North Korea and China is increasing. Considering that trade is likely to be even brisker in the future, what would you like to see as a trade representative this year?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was back in North Korea, I assumed I\u2019d have frequent chances to meet traders in China and that it would be easy to buy good and affordable products to ship back home. I guess you could say I had some big dreams. I also expected to make a lot of money, but now that I\u2019m here, the conditions aren\u2019t great. We\u2019re under too many restrictions, even here. We\u2019re not free to go around buying stuff, and we\u2019re not even allowed to have normal meetings with people. As if that weren\u2019t bad enough, we have to pay exorbitant customs duties whenever we want to send goods over the border. Duties are 40% of the cost of the goods, and there are other expenses, too, including shipping and fees for the Chinese. Those duties are too high when you consider we\u2019re bringing in the goods the government wants. It would be nice if they could lower the duties, if only by a little. And considering that we\u2019ve got to go around and meet a lot of people if we\u2019re supposed to come up with good-quality products, I think that lifting some of these restrictions would make us more effective in our work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid the resumption of person-to-person travel between North Korea and China, North Korean officials are rotating out some of the North Korean trade officials who are assigned to work overseas. Those movements are leading some to predict that North Korean imports to and exports from China will pick up this year. At the same time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":42643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,645],"tags":[735,759,1016,1656],"class_list":["post-57544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-economy","tag-trade","tag-china","tag-surveillance","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"\nN. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A North Korean trade representative in China said that the authorities\u2019 surveillance makes it hard to even meet with Chinese traders.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A North Korean trade representative in China said that the authorities\u2019 surveillance makes it hard to even meet with Chinese traders.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-25T08:43:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"741\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"494\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Seulkee Jang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Seulkee Jang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Seulkee Jang\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/194958ce83d17408851c1d378fa83857\"},\"headline\":\"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-25T08:43:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":970,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"trade\",\"china\",\"surveillance\",\"dprk\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/\",\"name\":\"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-25T08:43:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"A North Korean trade representative in China said that the authorities\u2019 surveillance makes it hard to even meet with Chinese traders.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg\",\"width\":741,\"height\":494,\"caption\":\"FILE PHOTO: North Korean trucks can be seen heading to the Chinese side of the border on the Sino-North Korean Friendship Bridge. (Daily NK)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/\",\"name\":\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Daily NK English\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/top_logo@1x.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/top_logo@1x.png\",\"width\":272,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Daily NK English\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"description\":\"An independent online news organization based in Seoul, South Korea, reporting on internal North Korean affairs through a network of in-country sources and defector journalists. Part of the Unification Media Group (UMG) consortium.\",\"email\":\"dailynkenglish@uni-media.net\",\"telephone\":\"82-2-732-6998\",\"legalName\":\"DailyNK\",\"foundingDate\":\"2004-12-01\",\"numberOfEmployees\":{\"@type\":\"QuantitativeValue\",\"minValue\":\"1\",\"maxValue\":\"10\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/194958ce83d17408851c1d378fa83857\",\"name\":\"Seulkee Jang\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/9f4cf0f24b376077a2fcdab2e85c3584-150x150.webp\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/9f4cf0f24b376077a2fcdab2e85c3584-150x150.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/9f4cf0f24b376077a2fcdab2e85c3584-150x150.webp\",\"caption\":\"Seulkee Jang\"},\"description\":\"Seulkee Jang is one of Daily NK's full-time reporters and covers North Korean economic and diplomatic issues, including workers dispatched abroad. Jang has a M.A. in Sociology from University of North Korean Studies and a B.A. in Sociology from Yonsei University. She can be reached at skjang(at)uni-media.net.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/author\\\/jang-seul-gi\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026","description":"A North Korean trade representative in China said that the authorities\u2019 surveillance makes it hard to even meet with Chinese traders.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work","og_description":"A North Korean trade representative in China said that the authorities\u2019 surveillance makes it hard to even meet with Chinese traders.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/","og_site_name":"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026","article_published_time":"2024-01-25T08:43:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":741,"height":494,"url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Seulkee Jang","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Seulkee Jang","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/"},"author":{"name":"Seulkee Jang","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/194958ce83d17408851c1d378fa83857"},"headline":"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work","datePublished":"2024-01-25T08:43:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/"},"wordCount":970,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg","keywords":["trade","china","surveillance","dprk"],"articleSection":["News","Economy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/","name":"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg","datePublished":"2024-01-25T08:43:30+00:00","description":"A North Korean trade representative in China said that the authorities\u2019 surveillance makes it hard to even meet with Chinese traders.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg","width":741,"height":494,"caption":"FILE PHOTO: North Korean trucks can be seen heading to the Chinese side of the border on the Sino-North Korean Friendship Bridge. (Daily NK)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-trade-official-talks-challenges-line-work\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"N. Korean trade official talks about challenges in his line of work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/","name":"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#organization","name":"Daily NK English","url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/top_logo@1x.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/top_logo@1x.png","width":272,"height":90,"caption":"Daily NK English"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"description":"An independent online news organization based in Seoul, South Korea, reporting on internal North Korean affairs through a network of in-country sources and defector journalists. Part of the Unification Media Group (UMG) consortium.","email":"dailynkenglish@uni-media.net","telephone":"82-2-732-6998","legalName":"DailyNK","foundingDate":"2004-12-01","numberOfEmployees":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","minValue":"1","maxValue":"10"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/194958ce83d17408851c1d378fa83857","name":"Seulkee Jang","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/9f4cf0f24b376077a2fcdab2e85c3584-150x150.webp","url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/9f4cf0f24b376077a2fcdab2e85c3584-150x150.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/9f4cf0f24b376077a2fcdab2e85c3584-150x150.webp","caption":"Seulkee Jang"},"description":"Seulkee Jang is one of Daily NK's full-time reporters and covers North Korean economic and diplomatic issues, including workers dispatched abroad. Jang has a M.A. in Sociology from University of North Korean Studies and a B.A. in Sociology from Yonsei University. She can be reached at skjang(at)uni-media.net.","url":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/author\/jang-seul-gi\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57544"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57548,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57544\/revisions\/57548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}