Headlines
One North Korean woman described how her father died of starvation. Another said her friends were publicly executed for watching and sharing South Korean television dramas. North Korea’s ambassador appeared unmoved. When he got up to speak, he described it as a political scheme and labeled the women as “human scum.”
North Korean authorities have distributed high-performance handheld radio signal detectors to border security agents as part of an intensified campaign to block residents from making unauthorized phone calls to South Korea, local sources told RFA.
A fire that broke out in an apartment complex in North Korea’s Sinuiju city spread to neighboring homes, destroying over 10 units, after residents hesitated to call for help due to the high costs of dispatching fire trucks, two sources inside the region told Radio Free Asia.
Authorities in North Korea have ordered schools across the country to raise more rabbits to supply and feed its army or face punishment, sources told Radio Free Asia.
North Korean forces deployed in Russia’s Kursk region may soon be sent into annexed regions of Ukraine that remain fiercely contested by Russian and Ukrainian forces, a senior Ukrainian official said.
Some North Korean hospitals are posting prices for treatment and medicine in a break from past practice that suggests authorities are abandoning the goal of providing free health care, sources in the country have told Radio Free Asia.
The North Korean army is ordering soldiers to stop scrounging the streets for cigarette butts to smoke even as commanders keep some of the soldiers’ monthly cigarette rations for themselves, members of the country’s military told Radio Free Asia.
North Korea publicly executed three men — shooting each one with 90 rounds from a machine gun — for attempting to flee to democratic South Korea, a witness and a resident who heard about the execution told Radio Free Asia.
Although it isn’t legal for women to obtain drivers’ licenses, it isn’t exactly easy for men to get them either. Only men who are in the military or work in a factory and are approved by the government are eligible to undergo driver training, which can take three to six months to complete.
North Korea has banned two popular dishes from being sold in restaurants because they are South Korean in origin, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.