Latest headlines from The Daily NK, covering world, with clear attribution and direct links to the original publisher.
A Chongjin medicine trader lost her entire stock in October 2026 after refusing a police officer’s demand for free drugs, winning back her goods only by paying an even larger bribe. Her case shows how North Korea’s crackdown on private trade feeds everyday corruption. A joint inspection team seized all of her medicine in early […]
Three young laborers in North Korea’s Ryanggang province faced a public trial in October 2026 for a monthslong theft spree targeting food, livestock and farm tools belonging to struggling local households. Yet the case has stirred sympathy among Paekam county residents, many of whom blame the state rather than the thieves. The trial took place […]
Chinese cargo trucks are rolling across the New Yalu River Bridge, but North Korean trucks have yet to join them. Two weeks after the crossing opened on Oct. 15, 2026, North Korean transport officials are still preparing their own vehicles for service, and some traders in China expect the North Korean trucks to start running […]
Education authorities in North Korea’s North Hamgyong province have ordered teachers to compete in a “multilingual contest” in 2026. Teachers in Chongjin say it is really an English contest that has them cramming vocabulary and conversation scripts, and complain the state keeps adding to their crushing workload while doing nothing to improve their pay and […]
Small groups of North Korean women with a little money to spare are embracing domestic tourism this fall. Leisure trips of this kind were once seen as a pastime reserved for the country’s wealthiest traders, but now even women with regular jobs are carving out a day or two in autumn 2026 for outings. “More […]
Rice prices in North Korean markets topped 50,000 North Korean won per kilogram for the first time in late October 2026. The record comes even as farms across the country bring in the autumn harvest. Fears of a smaller rice crop appear to be driving North Korean households and traders to stockpile grain, pushing prices […]
Private sellers in Hamhung, North Korea, are aggressively pushing pricey health supplements on local people in 2026. They claim the products come from North Korean-Chinese joint ventures and are normally made for export. The pitch has caught plenty of attention, but only wealthy donju can afford products costing over 400,000 North Korean won. “Some individuals […]
North Korea has launched a sweeping ideological campaign targeting its own journalists in October 2026, timed to the 80th anniversary of the Korean Journalists’ Union. Reporters must now set year-end loyalty pledges and speak at mandatory discussion sessions. In Ryanggang province, journalists at the provincial party newspaper say the sessions now eat up more time […]
North Korea’s 2026 fall harvest mobilization looks very different depending on where people work. At some well-funded state agencies and enterprises in South Pyongan province, workers finish harvesting by midday. They then spend the afternoon eating and relaxing outdoors, turning a compulsory chore into something close to a company picnic. Sideline farms are plots that […]
North Korean intelligence officers in North Hamgyong province used neighborhood lectures in mid-October 2026 to attack secret users of Chinese mobile phones. Visiting towns along the Chinese border, they hurled crude insults at phone users and told ordinary North Koreans to report anyone they catch. The officers belong to the National Intelligence Agency, North Korea’s […]
Pyongyang authorities have launched a Kumsusan Palace of the Sun fundraising drive that runs through the end of 2026. Officials call the campaign voluntary, yet they are tying each person’s donation to assessments of political loyalty, which has led cadres and ordinary Pyongyang residents alike to quietly complain about the added financial strain. The Pyongyang […]
A widowed mother in Tanchon, South Hamgyong province, has begged her son’s school to keep him off North Korea’s 2026 conscription rolls. The teenager, however, is refusing his military service exemption and insists on joining the Korean People’s Army. The senior high school student could legally skip service as his mother’s only source of support. […]
North Korea has begun final screening of unmarried female workers in their 20s bound for jobs in China, and they could start work at Chinese factories as early as December 2026. They come from factories and enterprises in South Pyongan province, which closed its recruitment drive in late September. Women who pass the central government’s […]
North Korea’s foreign currency-earning units are scrambling for low-paying contract manufacturing work from China in October 2026. A prolonged crackdown on cross-border smuggling has wiped out one of their most important sources of hard currency. These units are trading companies and enterprises run by state agencies, the military and the Workers’ Party of Korea. Each […]
Satellite imagery of a shortwave radio transmitter site in Hyangsan county, Jagang province, shows 23 large steel towers spread across four zones. The towers reveal the scale of the infrastructure North Korea still uses in 2026 to beam state propaganda around the world. The site is known as a main transmission hub for Voice of […]
