Reinvigorating Global Engagement on Human Rights in North Korea: The 2025 NK Insider Forum
Seoul, Korea (Oct. 29, 2025) – Last week on October 22, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and the NGO Council for North Korean Human Rights hosted the 2025 NK Insider Forum, the day-long kickoff event of the inaugural three-day Seoul World Convention on North Korean Human Rights. More than 300 attendees gathered to hear from two defectors, who shared their firsthand experiences under the Kim regime, and international experts who shed light on inhumane punishment, pervasive censorship, and systematic oppression and discussed paths forward to reinvigorate global engagement on human rights in North Korea.
The anti-Americanism and pro-North Korea tendencies of South Korea’s Candlelight Action protest movement
After President Yoon Seok-yeol took office in May 2022, there was immediately a rebirth of the so-called candlelight protests which had targeted and led to...
Profile of the Pro-North Korea movement in the United States
Editorial Note: The following article gives an overview of the character of the pro-North Korea movement in the U.S. It provides a portrait of the...
Exclusive: Documents and personal items found on the body of a North Korean soldier in Kursk Oblast region (1)
HRF’s Korea Desk has been in regular communication with members of the Ukrainian special forces operating in the Kursk Oblast region since December 20. We...
Exclusive: Documents found on the body of a North Korean soldier in Kursk Oblast region (2)
HRF’s Korea Desk has been in regular communication with members of the Ukrainian special forces operating in the Kursk Oblast region since December 20. We...
HRF hosts inaugural NK Insider Forum in Seoul, South Korea
Seoul, Korea — On Dec. 19, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) hosted the inaugural NK Insider Forum, a unique conference addressing critical issues related to North Korean human rights. The theme of this year’s forum, “Cracks in the Regime: The Exodus of North Korea’s Elite and Global Responses,” highlighted the defection of North Korea’s elite and the international community’s role in responding to the ongoing crisis.
One party vs. multiple parties
The most cited difference between countries that are socialist or capitalist is the extent to which individual citizens are able to own the means of...
North Korea’s Internal War Against South Korean Culture and Market Ideas May Be Unwinnable
As the generation of North Koreans who grew up familiar with the jangmadang market system enters adulthood, the state is cracking down harshly to prevent their “impure” attitudes and tastes – which include a preference for South Korean music and movies – from going mainstream.
The two-faced tactics and time-tested tricks of tyrants
The three dictatorships of the last century which diabolically mastered the black arts of political trickery and diplomatic two-faced tactics - Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia,...
Kim highlights power plant construction…Ignores people’s suffering
Kim Jong-un last week opened a new power plant, praising the patriotic “self-reliance” of the people, seemingly oblivious to the actual burdens placed on them...
How our childhood gifts from the benevolent leader actually came from the sweat of our parents
When I was growing up, the most special days of the year were the Day of the Sun on April 15 and the Day of...
Secret police officer crosses the ‘forbidden line’ with a woman in a defector’s family
Recently, it was revealed that an officer from the feared secret police agency in South Hamgyong Province had been caught in an illicit relationship with...
As North Koreans face economic hardship, Kim opts for further repression
Amid growing public discontent caused by economic hardship, Kim Jong-un appears to be doubling down on monitoring and repression by further empowering the powerful state...
Kim Jong-un visits Supreme Court, prosecutors, and security agencies, emphasizing their role as vanguard of regime defense
Kim Jong-un visited key pillars of the regime on the same day this month in what analysts say indicates a continued strengthening of the tools...
Farmers struggle to collect payment for livestock
As the world rapidly changes to adapt to AI, farmers in North Korea remain far removed from the new era, struggling instead to collect payment...
The declining value of Party membership for women
Do women in North Korea go to the military? I am often asked this in South Korea. Yes, they do, I tell people. They are...
Noblesse Oblige and Sunshine 4.0 — FDR and Stalin, Lee Jae-myung and Kim Jong-un
The French term "noblesse oblige," which literally translates as "nobility obligates," is defined in various English language dictionaries as the notion that certain people having...
Russian military chief visits Pyongyang to discuss ideological management of North Korean troops
A series of meetings last week in Pyongyang between Russian and North Korean officials responsible for political-ideological affairs indicates an intensified focus on ideological loyalty...
In an era of greater control, North Korea is quietly fracturing
In recent years the regime in North Korea has steadily intensified its enforcement of the “socialist lifestyle,” tightening control over nearly every aspect of daily...
Security guard nabbed for thieving rice and corn from farm in South Hwanghae Province
A local worker has been arrested by police after a series of thefts from a farm in South Hwanghae Province. The worker reportedly used his...
Students forcibly mobilized for corn harvest after school
With North Korea facing more chronic food shortages, the regime is doing what it does best and looking to boost productivity by enlisting students for...
Inside the prison state
Feature: What’s it like to live in North Korea? Yumi Kim on heavy repression, secret phone calls, and virtual private networks. Published with The Signal....
Feature: The way of Kim Jong Un
How is political upheaval in South Korea affecting North Korea? Soo Kim on what’s driving Pyongyang’s increasing hostility toward Seoul. Published with The Signal. Sign...
북한인권에 대한 국제적 참여의 재도약: 2025 NK 인사이더 포럼
서울, 한국 (2025년 10월 29일) – 지난 주 10월 22일, 휴먼라이츠 재단 (HRF)와 (사) 북한인권민간단체협의회가 함께 ‘2025 NK 인사이더 포럼’을 주최하여 서울 북한 인권 세계대회의 개막을 알리는 일일 행사를 진행하였습니다. 300명 이상의 참가자들이 두 명의 탈북민이 전하는 김씨 정권 하에서의 생생한 경험과 국제 전문가가 조명하는 북한의 비인간적인 처벌, 만연한 검열, 그리고 제도적인 억압에 대한 현실을 듣기 위해 한자리에 모였습니다. 이를 기반으로 북한 인권 문제에 대한 국제사회의 참여를 다시금 활성화할 수 있는 방안을 토론하는 시간을 가졌습니다.
Feature: Obscured by clouds
Why does North Korea keep threatening South Korea and its allies without ever going to war? Michael Breen on theater and reality in one of...