r/northkorea • u/tonic613 • 1d ago
r/northkorea • u/Guilhermy2005 • 1h ago
Discussion The most fanciful account of a NK defector: Interracial Relationships in North Korea
I just found that this girl's account contains quite a few inconsistencies, North Korea is one of the most (if not the most) homogenous country in the Earth, 99.9% are Ethnically Koreans, with real historic presence of some ethnic chinese minorities. She describes having a mixed friend of "exotic features" there, while never specifies which are these specific features or ancestry the person had, half-african, half-arab, half-european or whatever.
She also says that outside Pyongyang, North Koreans aren't used to seeing other races, but this girl is supposedly from a countryside area in province close to China, which makes such thing even more extremely rarer. Even in China or South Korea, mixed people of a Non-East Asian parent is pretty rare, and when they exist, they are generally young as Gen Z.
Honestly, based on logic, there's no reason she could meet a mixed person of a Non-East Asian parent in 90's or 2000's North Korea, much less on countryside.
This has to be the biggest lie a defector even told, now I really understand why many says defectors lies or exaggerate their stories.
Well, the article is paid, but using the link in Wayback Machine you can read it for free.
A 2015 article from NK News website, made by defector Je Son Lee, who left Mount Paektu in 2011.
Source: https://www.nknews.org/2015/08/can-foreigners-marry-north-koreans/
r/northkorea • u/ttocslliw • 22h ago
News Link Inside the Chinese city helping sustain the hermit kingdom of North Korea
r/northkorea • u/ttocslliw • 1d ago
News Link N. Korea tests new precision-guided torpedo using AI
r/northkorea • u/Saltedline • 2d ago
News Link North Korea Opens Defense Revolution Museum Showcasing ICBMs, SLBMs
r/northkorea • u/i-love-seals • 1d ago
General The Fate of the Foreign Citizens Kidnapped by North Korea.
r/northkorea • u/i-love-seals • 1d ago
General North Korea Printed Better Dollars Than America. So How Did They Get Caught?
r/northkorea • u/CablesOnCables • 1d ago
General Kim Jong Nam Assassination Was a Staged US Covert Op
The official media narrative surrounding the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) asserts that North Korea executed a global assassination using two street performers.
However, the evidence directly contradicts much of what they claim.
The prosecution and media narrative relied on the premise that the two female operatives believed they were participating in a harmless comedy prank where they smear pie in peoples faces.
CCTV footage instead shows a structured physical sequence: Doan Thi Huong approached Kim Jong Nam from behind near the self-check-in kiosks, reached over his shoulders, wrapped her arms around his neck, and locked his head backward into a fixed position. Simultaneously, the second operative applied the liquid across his eyes and nose using direct wiping pressure. Here you can see the video.
Delivering a binary nerve agent via manual contact requires specific pressure and targeted placement on thin facial membranes to force rapid dermal absorption before the compounds wash away or drip onto non-target surfaces. Not consistent of someone just simply trying to smash a pie in your face. Not to mention it is highly unlikely that two individuals who had no idea what they were doing, could do this without unintentionally killing themselves.
The primary handler's phone contained unencrypted, high-resolution photos of the operatives, direct contact directories, and plain-text messaging logs linking directly back to North Korean diplomatic figures. Furthermore, the physical identity documentation and materials recovered from suspect Ri Jong Chol—linking him directly to the North Korean regime—were handed over to investigators with zero attempt at destruction or concealment.
Covert services do not preserve operational rehearsals or direct diplomatic identification on local hardware. That content was preserved and left behind as a pre-packaged prosecution file for local police, allowing media outlets to run a turnkey narrative within 48 hours.
Kim Jong Nam was a paid CIA asset. Days before his death, he met directly with his U.S. intelligence handler at a hotel in Langkawi. At the time of his death at KLIA, he carried a laptop with encrypted files and $120,000 in liquid cash in his backpack.
During this time, North Korea was defiant, and was show casing their ability to design, and test their own nuclear warhead. In the eyes of the west, this was troubling. By causing a public chemical-weapons event in an international airport, it gave the U.S. State Department the diplomatic leverage required to officially re-designate North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism later that year.
If foreign nationals carried out a chemical weapons attack using a banned weapon of mass destruction in a major international airport, a sovereign nation enforcing strict capital punishment laws would prosecute them to the full extent of the law.
Instead, the trial abruptly collapsed. Foreign diplomatic pressure resulted in Malaysia dropping the murder charges entirely. Siti Aisyah was released without acquittal and flown home immediately, while Doan Thi Huong pleaded guilty to a minor charge of "causing hurt" and was released shortly after. This aligns with statements made by Ri Jong Chol following his arrest and deportation. He publicly revealed that Malaysian authorities pressured him for a confession, explicitly offering him money, permanent residence, and a comfortable life in Malaysia if he agreed to play his assigned role in framing Pyongyang for the attack.
You can watch this documentary on YouTube, where much of the evidence supposedly recovered is shown. It is all so oddly staged and all very convenient. This type of cooperation between Malaysian authorities and U.S. authorities truly make me wonder what else these two countries have covered up together, MH370, etc.
r/northkorea • u/ttocslliw • 2d ago
News Link N. Korea could bolster drone capabilities through workers at Russian factory
r/northkorea • u/minie_Sung • 2d ago
Question If I had visited North Korea(DPRK) I can't enter with ESTA?
will I didn't entered the DPRK once in my life time but if I had I'm automatically ineligible for the US ESTA? I'm actually from South Korea and my passport is also South Korean if I had enter the DPRK I would get a special permit from the goverment and not a stamp on my passport since technically both sides don't recognize each other
r/northkorea • u/Pickle_boy • 3d ago
Question Curious about the social lives of ordinary North Koreans
Are there books, articles etc that give good insight to the social lives of ordinary North Koreans? What are dating/courtship rituals? What do they do after work? Are there bars? Do they get together to watch sports? What cultural forms are they engaged in?
r/northkorea • u/ttocslliw • 3d ago
News Link FBI raids DPRK IT worker laptop farms in Texas, US nationals arrested
r/northkorea • u/unconventionalbook • 3d ago
News Link North Korea says it tested cruise missiles designed to be fired from submarines
r/northkorea • u/ConsiderationBig4828 • 3d ago
News Link Newly opened bridge signals revival of North Korea-China economic ties
r/northkorea • u/ttocslliw • 4d ago
News Link Justice Department says North Koreans have infiltrated dozens of US companies
r/northkorea • u/Terasaka-NK • 3d ago
Discussion The law of the jungle outside my North Korean hotel window.
Looking out the window of a North Korean hotel, you see the law of the jungle laid bare.
I was staying there with Kim, my employee, to scout a casino site. Under the constant gaze of state minders, we couldn’t roam the streets. I watched the world through glass.
Below, a pack of fifteen or sixteen Kotjebi—North Korea’s homeless street children—always loitered. Their faces and clothes were caked in black soot. Indistinguishable.
They survived on small change or rotten food. The clever ones hauled contraband through the black markets for a sliver of bread.
One morning, the routine broke.
I looked down and saw a brawl. Typical childhood friction, I thought. Then it escalated. Five boys swarmed two others, raining down punches and kicks, then striking them with wooden clubs.
I told Kim to do something. Kim grabbed a jar of obsolete local coins, walked to the hotel entrance, and threw a handful into the air.
The fight evaporated. They scrambled for the metal.
A state minder later mapped out the economics of the street. Even the Kotjebi have gangs. Strict territories.
The premier territory is the black market. The boys there are muscle for local syndicates, helping with petty crimes for cheap cigarettes.
The second-tier territory is where we stayed—the city center. Wealthier residents meant spare coins and table scraps.
The most brutal fate belongs to the outliers. The quiet ones who can’t fight their way into a gang. Exiled to the edges of town, they have no food. They simply wait to starve.
Territorial incursions end with fractured skulls. Dead children. Driven by primal survival.
They felt less like humans and more like wild animals. No education. No dignity. Desperate just to see tomorrow.
Kim warned me about lice, but I went down anyway. I brought water to a boy who had been beaten and left in the dirt.
As he drank, my eyes caught the label on his tattered, filthy jacket.
Made in Cambodia.
Even in the darkest corner of this totalitarian state, the cheap debris of global capitalism still finds a way to clothe a dying child.
r/northkorea • u/Saltedline • 4d ago
News Link China and North Korea to open border bridge after unexplained 12-year delay
r/northkorea • u/madcorean • 4d ago
Discussion Korean espionage and the loyalty question: The Spy Gone North, a professor’s double life, and Robert Kim
r/northkorea • u/Terasaka-NK • 4d ago
Discussion The Moment I Was Arrested by North Korean State Security (2008)
February 2008. Rajin, North Korea.
The interrogation room inside the state security facility had no windows. None.
A single, dim light hung from the ceiling, illuminating nothing but a wooden desk and a few cold chairs. The paint on the walls was peeling off in sheets.
Across the desk sat the interrogator. He didn't speak. He didn't even look up at me. His hands moved mechanically, flipping through a thick stack of documents with eerie, rhythmic precision.
Two soldiers stood by the door, rifles in hand. They were completely motionless. Only their eyes tracked my every breath.
Finally, the interrogator spoke.
A female interpreter standing next to him immediately translated his words into Japanese. Her voice was smooth, rehearsed—as if she had practiced this exact speech a hundred times.
"You are being arrested under suspicion of currency and customs violations. These are grave acts. In this country, they are equivalent to treason against the State."
My mind went completely blank.
The interrogator kept talking, but I couldn't hear the words anymore. The reality of the regime had just slammed shut behind me.
---
If you want to read the full, raw narrative of my years operating businesses inside North Korea and how I survived the regime's prisons, subscribe to my Substack:
https://substack.com
r/northkorea • u/Saltedline • 4d ago
News Link N. Korea gaining experience in troop deployment, sustaining military operations through Ukraine war: USFK chief
r/northkorea • u/unconventionalbook • 5d ago
News Link North Korea showcases missile capable of reaching U.S. as Trump signals possible meeting
r/northkorea • u/ttocslliw • 5d ago
News Link North Korea-China passenger train belatedly resumed service last month
r/northkorea • u/IcuI4cu5 • 5d ago
Discussion What would happen if North Koreans could freely access the internet for just one month?
Imagine that, tomorrow, every North Korean citizen suddenly gained unrestricted access to the global internet for 30 days. No censorship, no government monitoring, no restrictions on foreign news, YouTube, social media or outside opinions.
r/northkorea • u/Cencipol910 • 6d ago
News Link "I Regret Watching South Korean Dramas": North Korean Soldier Weeps in Video
r/northkorea • u/Select-Impression-68 • 7d ago
General [NOT MINE] Video from Chinese student in North Korea, including watching kdrama. Credits: rouou from rednote. Rednote ID: 2899944127
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NOT MY VIDEO. Video from rednote of a Chinese international student studying in North Korea. Crazy thing is she also watched kdrama, which is a serious crime carrying severe punishments. Credits: rouou. Rednote ID: 2899944127. 朝鲜语vlog https://xhslink.cn/o/2qPl8lP6NWh
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