A vast transportation lockdown meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus in China is forcing many North Korean refugees to suspend their escape to freedom. That is leaving many would-be defectors stranded in a country that has long sent them back home to certain punishment. The development comes as the number of North Korean defectors to South Korea has already dramatically slowed
Reports of cancer, infertility, and birth defects in the mining area of Tongam village are consistent with medical understandings that these things result from exposure to radiation
Medicines including painkillers and fever-reducing drugs brought into North Korea by the Red Cross and other international NGOs have become harder to obtain in recent years as U.N. sanctions punishing North Korea for its illicit nuclear weapons program have taken hold, sources told RFA in earlier reports
In North Korea it is rare that people from regions outside the capital would have access to any institutions reserved for Pyongyang’s privileged residents, much less a state-of-the-art hospital
The Korean writing system, known as Hangul, or Chosongul in North Korea, has been described by linguists as an alphabetic syllabary. Consonants and vowels are organized into syllabic blocks. In terms of the Rason project, that means 18 individual panels will be made, with one syllable of the slogan written on each
The report recommends that North Korea undergo comprehensive reforms, such as a review of the criminal codes and other laws so that North Koreans can participate in lawful market activities
Otto Warmbier, a 22-year old American college student, was detained in Jan. 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel while he was visiting Pyongyang with a tour group
Observers wonder whether the second summit will produce an agreement that changes Pyongyang’s nuclear threat against the Korean Peninsula and beyond
Like his father, Kim Jong Un has a penchant for ambitious building projects, including 82- and 70-story residences in the capital’s “Ryomyong,” or “dawn,” district that opened last year and a massive science and technology complex with a main building shaped like a giant atom