FILE PHOTO: CCTV camera in Jilin Province on the China-North Korea border. (Daily NK) North Korea has intensified controls on gatherings and private conversations in border areas, ordering that groups of three or more people be broken up and that anyone who discusses South Korea in groups face legal punishment. A source in North Pyongan province told Daily NK on Monday that the National Intelligence Agency (NIS; formerly the Ministry of State Security, renamed at the Ninth Workers’ Party of Korea Congress), North Korea’s primary domestic intelligence and secret police agency, issued instructions through neighborhood watch units barring Sinuiju residents and people in Uiju county from gathering in groups of three or more without a clear purpose. Social gatherings such as drinking parties were also specifically prohibited under the order. The source said the restrictions were conveyed with unusual urgency, noting that crackdowns on private gatherings typically occur around major...

Chinese tourists gather outside the Dandong customs checkpoint in Liaoning province, China. Photo: Daily NK Chinese travel agencies began promoting North Korea tourism packages in June, capitalizing on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to Pyongyang in seven years to drum up anticipation for a resumption of cross-border group travel that has been suspended since the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple Daily NK sources reported Tuesday that agencies in Beijing, Nanjing and Shenyang have launched promotional campaigns for North Korea tour packages targeting July departures. Itineraries circulating on Chinese online platforms feature a seven-night trip using the international train line between Dandong, on China’s border with North Korea, and Pyongyang. Proposed itineraries include stops at central Pyongyang, the Mansudae Art Studio, the Juche Tower (the official symbol of North Korea’s state ideology of self-reliance), the Arch of Triumph, Panmungak (a building on the North Korean side of the inter-Korean border at Panmunjom),...

Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Air Force Commander Kim Gwang Hyok at a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army Air Force at Kalma Airport, Nov. 28, 2025. | Rodong Sinmun, News1 A nephew of North Korean Air Force commander Kim Gwang Hyok was spared from execution after leader Kim Jong Un issued a personal directive overturning the sentence, sparking a growing backlash over unequal enforcement of the country’s strict foreign content laws. A source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Monday that the nephew had been arrested for watching and distributing banned foreign video recordings and was sentenced to death under the Reactionary Thought and Culture Rejection Law, a statute enacted in 2020 that criminalizes the viewing or circulation of foreign content, including South Korean films and television programs. Under the law, those found to have organized group screenings or distributed large volumes of such...

The Central Bank of North Korea in Pyongyang. / Photo: Captured from the website of North Korean external propaganda outlet Sokwang North Korean high school students are taking out bank loans through their mobile phones without their parents’ knowledge, spending the money on smartphone games and consumer goods and leaving their families to deal with the debt, a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently. “Recently, high school in Hamhung have been borrowing money from banks without their parents’ permission and using it to buy things they want or to spend on entertainment,” the source said. “In the past, children who needed money asked their parents. Now that they can borrow easily through a bank, they do it on their own terms, and parents are beside themselves with worry.” Under North Korea’s current mobile banking system, anyone with a mobile phone and a bank account registered in their...

President Lee Jae-myung is seen speaking at a cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, on June 5. (Presidential office press pool) June 4, 2026, marks the first anniversary of President Lee Jae-myung’s inauguration. Given that his government took office in the wake of a sudden presidential resignation and impeachment crisis, with no transition period whatsoever, there were genuine concerns at the time about whether normal governance was even possible. One year on, the Lee administration has largely put those concerns to rest. Against a backdrop of sweeping domestic and global turbulence, including a KOSPI index that has crossed the 8,000 mark for the first time, the government has recorded meaningful achievements across a range of policy areas. In this column, I assess the foreign affairs, security, and unification portfolio specifically: where the government has earned credit, where it has fallen short, and what South Korea must do...

Vendors sell fruit along a rural road between Nampo and Kaesong, North Korea, in 2015. /Photo=Uwe Brodrecht More than five years after North Korea’s state-run grain stores were introduced, North Korean people say the outlets are operating more smoothly than in the early days, when erratic supply often left shelves bare or stores shuttered entirely. Yet as rice prices have climbed and the price gap between state stores and open markets has narrowed sharply, satisfaction with the program is giving way to frustration over affordability and inconsistent quality. The grain stores, known in Korean as yanggok pansomso (state-subsidized grain retail outlets established by the North Korean government to sell rice and other staples at below-market prices), were created to cushion North Korean people against food price volatility. According to sources who spoke with Daily NK in June 2026, most stores now maintain a relatively steady supply, a marked improvement from...

Solar panels installed on a building in North Korea. / Photo: Captured from the website of North Korean external propaganda outlet Sokwang North Korean authorities are actively encouraging state institutions, enterprises, and neighborhood watch units to generate their own electricity through solar power as the country’s chronic energy shortages show no signs of easing. But the steep upfront cost of the necessary equipment means that, in practice, only those with access to significant funds are able to install it, a source in North Pyongan province told Daily NK on Friday. In Yomju county, lectures are being held at institutions, enterprises, and neighborhood watch units in which the solar setups already operating at select facilities are held up as success stories, the source said. The message being promoted is that, given the instability of state electricity supply, units must take responsibility for securing their own power, particularly in sectors where electricity...

The Workers’ Party of Korea’s official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, reported July 3, 2023, that efforts to clear and reinforce rivers and waterways must continue. Photo: Rodong Sinmun/News1 North Korea is rushing to survey and reinforce flood-prone areas ahead of the summer rainy season, mobilizing factory and enterprise workers for large-scale repair work at rivers, embankments, and mountain slopes across North Pyongan province. A Daily NK source in North Pyongan province said Monday that the Land and Environmental Protection Management Department of the Unsan county people’s committee — a local administrative body responsible for land use, environmental protection, and infrastructure — conducted field inspections in early May targeting areas at high risk of flooding and landslides along the county’s rivers, streams, and hillsides. From mid-May onward, workers from local factories and enterprises were mobilized to carry out embankment repairs, drainage channel maintenance, and riverbed clearing. Work-site inspections have been conducted frequently...