Exiled Opinion: Free speech in North Korea

Community posters in North Korean street.

Leave no suggestions in the suggestions box! In South Korea, every public and commercial building has a customer suggestions box. They are visible in all public spaces and in taxis, too. There are even TV programs that deal with customer complaints. A similar system exists in North Korea, or at least it appears to. North [...]

Turning a Blind Eye to Petty Crime in North Korea

North Koreans going about their everyday lives.

Like anywhere else in the world, there is crime in North Korea As the gap between rich and poor widens, illegal activities tend to surge as those in poverty become increasingly restless. South Korea’s ‘Jijonpa Incident’ would be a representative example from the Korean peninsula. In this incident, a group of people from a lower [...]

Another DPRK Kidnapping Or Another Re-Defection?

Source: Rodong Sinmun, May 18th.

Amid North Korea’s apparent efforts at preventing defections and orchestrating re-defections, New Focus International has learned that Moon Hyeok-Chul (aged 52) is the latest defector to have gone missing under suspicious circumstances. He left North Korea in 2005 and had been working as a bus driver in South Korea. Both Moon’s colleagues and members of [...]

Exclusive: DPRK Overseas Missions Ordered To Lure Veterans Back Home

Korean War veterans

DPRK Overseas Missions Tasked With Urgent Duty A NFI correspondent working as an overseas DPRK business agent notified us of a recent emergency order issued to DPRK overseas missions. According to this information, overseas war veterans are to be persuaded to return to Pyongyang for July 27th – celebrated as Armistice Day in South Korea [...]

North Koreans Losing Interest In Cult Of Kim?

Kim Statues 2

North Korea’s state newspaper (Rodong Sinmun) and official news agency (KCNA) have released in recent years an average of at least 300 articles a month relating to the cult of Kim. In deifying Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, DPRK state media refers to them as “Eternal Chairmen of the National Defense Commission of [...]