North Koreans at a hospital in Pyongyang wearing masks in a photo published in state media in early 2020. (Rodong Sinmun) North Korea is preparing to transition from the free health care system it has nominally maintained over the years to a medical insurance model. This suggests the regime is determined not only to increase the number of hospitals and pharmacies but also to change the cost-sharing structure for medical care. “Since the Central Committee’s plenary session this past December, the Cabinet’s Health Ministry and Workers’ Party departments have been assigned the technical task of rebuilding the health care system from the ground up. Right now, they’re preparing to formally announce the new health care system,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK recently. According to the source, the regime is leaning toward making it mandatory for employees at various agencies and enterprises to enroll in medical insurance. “Going...

Village near the Chinese border city of Tumen, Jilin province, February 2019. North Korea’s North Hamgyong province is visible across the Tumen River. (Daily NK) Some North Korean defectors living in China are still unable to receive hospital treatment even for serious illnesses due to their status as illegal immigrants. A Daily NK source in China said recently that one female defector in Jilin province “urgently needs treatment for tuberculosis and severe depression, but because of her status, she is practically being neglected at home as she can’t receive hospital treatment.” According to the source, the woman began suffering from a dry cough, phlegm, a low-grade fever, and breathing problems a few months ago. At first, she believed it was a cold and bought cold medicine at a pharmacy, but the symptoms didn’t disappear. In response, her Chinese husband’s acquaintance, a friend of a doctor, helped her visit a hospital....

Even in the middle of a cold snap, North Korea has launched a final race to complete the Sinuiju Greenhouse Complex, currently under construction on Wihwa Island in the Yalu River near Sinuiju. Analysis of satellite data from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8, as well as Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) imagery, showed that North Korea is conducting high-intensity construction to finish early, with full mobilization of construction personnel—despite freezing temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius (-14 degrees Fahrenheit)—and late-night labor. North Korea has pushed ahead with construction of a massive greenhouse complex covering 450 hectares on Wihwa Island, which would be the largest greenhouse complex the country has announced. KCNA recently reported that leader Kim Jong Un paid his first on-site guidance visit of the new year to the Wihwa Island construction site, where he encouraged workers and checked on progress. About 97% of construction has been completed, with workers having...

A North Korean surveillance post photographed near the border with China. A poster describes methods of making reports, including a phone number for a neighborhood police station. (Courtesy of Kang Dong-wan, a professor at Dong-a University) As North Korea’s grip on society tightens by the day, the front-line police officers charged with preserving the regime in their public interactions face an increasingly heavy workload. The past year is remembered as a particularly exhausting one due to a spate of political events and internal probes held to mark the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Ministry of Social Security. In North Korea, a post with the police has long been prized as a reliable meal ticket because officers, given their great latitude in enforcing the law, are in the perfect position to solicit bribes from the public, whether overtly or covertly. But as North Koreans tighten their belts amid a...

Kim Jong Un in January 2022 (Rodong Sinmun-News1) While North Korea-China trade has been surging since the second half of 2025, North Korean trading officials operating overseas have, if anything, less latitude to do their jobs. Traders are coming under redoubled surveillance from North Korean authorities. When North Korea sends traders overseas to handle exports of local products and imports of goods required by the state, it scrutinizes the people those traders meet and the conversations they have. This close monitoring of every step traders take inevitably has a chilling effect on their activities. Notably, when the regime wants certain items imported, it gives traders detailed instructions based on online research of product details and the lowest available prices. In the past, traders would find companies that provided items for a reasonable price and arrange the imports after reporting their plans to authorities. But now, the central government reportedly selects...

FILE PHOTO: Ponghak beer sold in Dandong, in China’s Liaoning province. (Daily NK) North Korea’s Ponghak Beer, the beer of choice among North Korea’s elite, has appeared in the Chinese market. Alongside Taedonggang Beer, which was already widely known, and Tumangang Beer, an emerging contender actively promoted by North Korean authorities, even Ponghak Beer has now entered the Chinese market, giving all of North Korea’s recognized and symbolic beer brands a presence there. According to multiple Daily NK sources in China, Ponghak Beer is sold at import shops in the Chinese city of Dandong, Liaoning province. North Korean trade officials in China have worked hard since late last year to find local vendors to distribute Ponghak Beer, with the beer now distributed through Chinese entities that have signed consignment sales agreements with North Korea. Produced at Ponghak Foodstuffs Factory in Pyongsong, South Pyongan province, Ponghak Beer is widely seen in...

North Koreans out walking in the winter weather with masks on. (Rodong Sinmun-News1) As North Korea endures an arctic blast that has lasted since New Year’s, bursting pipes have disrupted the water supply in Ryanggang province. “With the temperature hovering around 20 degrees below zero, pipes have ruptured near Samjiyon and Taehongdan county, interrupting the water supply and endangering citizens’ lives,” a source in the province told Daily NK recently. According to the source, water was still not flowing in Samjiyon and Taehongdan on Jan. 12, after pipes burst early in the month. Long lines have formed at reservoirs, pump stations, and wells as people wait, sometimes until the early morning, for a chance to draw water. During the long wait, people puff on their freezing hands, their breath visible in the frigid air. In the grueling struggle to draw water, teenagers and the elderly are more commonly seen than...

In this picture from state-run media in July 2022, North Koreans are shown enjoying dog meat soup at a restaurant. (Rodong Sinmun-News1) Hwasonggak, a major restaurant in the Hwasong district of Pyongyang, was subject to a year-end evaluation and ideological struggle session as part of a wider review of restaurants in the capital in late December, Daily NK has learned. A source told Daily NK recently that Hwasonggak employees had to attend a bruising ideological struggle session—the first of its kind—on Dec. 27 that lasted all day. “Restaurant managers had been told the session would be held to assess the past year’s business and discuss direction for 2026. But in reality, problematic employees were called up to be sternly warned and publicly humiliated,” the source said. During performance evaluations and ideological struggle sessions held that day, between two and four individuals were openly reprimanded at each restaurant. Some individuals were...

Eight years after North Korea built what it claims is the world’s largest grazing area on Sepo tableland in Kangwon province, there are indications the pastureland is being poorly managed and may be reverting to wilderness. Supply shortages from the pandemic-related border closure and livestock die-offs during foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks have undermined management and created operational difficulties for the stockbreeding zone. Analysis of vegetation index images taken by an American polar-orbiting satellite found that growth of pasture planted with a Chinese fodder crop was uneven and fluctuated severely in the eight years since the stockbreeding zone was completed. In 2025, the vegetation index—which expresses pasture growth status—was lower than the previous year. Combined with foreign media reports, there are apparent signs of land degradation. It has been eight years since what North Korea claims is the world’s largest livestock grazing area was completed in the Sepo tableland, in Kangwon province,...

FILE PHOTO: A sentry post on the Sino-North Korean border in Sakju County, North Pyongan Province. (Daily NK) North Korean authorities have launched another so-called mopping-up operation—a sweeping crackdown—on users of Chinese mobile phones, focusing on regions along the Chinese border. North Korea has once again launched full-scale efforts to block the flow of outside information into the country and internal information to the outside world. “It feels like state security officers have recently stepped up their crackdowns on users of Chinese mobile phones, focused on Hoeryong, Musan county, Onsong county, and other border regions of North Hamgyong province,” a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently. “State security officers carrying detectors patrol villages and residential neighborhoods four or five times a day to find signals.” North Korea has long carried out mopping-up operations against users of Chinese-made mobile phones, which are directly connected to the outside world,...