North Korea News Podcast by NK News

This week, Dutch YouTuber Bart van Genuchten returns to the podcast to discuss his recent trip to North Korea for the 2024 Pyongyang International Marathon — the country’s first major tourism-related event since before the pandemic.

Van Genugten shares what it was like being among the first Westerners allowed back into Pyongyang, navigating both awkward influencer hype and deeply personal moments of connection with North Korean guides. He also discusses the ethics of content creation in authoritarian contexts and how Pyongyang seems to be subtly shifting its messaging on unification.

Bart van Genugten is a Dutch YouTuber living in Seoul, releasing videos on the channel iGoBart. He first garnered fame for his videos on a trip to North Korea in 2018

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a range of missile launches from the country’s largest-ever warship last week, according to state media.

NK News Deputy Managing Editor Alannah Hill joins the podcast to discuss the variety of weapons tested and the risk they pose, as well as the latest on the presidential race in South Korea and how North Korean beer made in the border city of Rason could soon be available for Russian consumers.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

On March 20, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights presented a report on “promoting accountability” for DPRK violations at the 58th session of the Human Rights Council. 

This week, Eleonor Fernandez of the U.N. OHCHR joins the podcast to unpack the report and what accountability really means for North Korea, the evidence behind the U.N.’s work and the challenges of investigating abuses in one of the world’s most closed societies.

She also discusses what role South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and European countries play in advancing human rights in North Korea and some of the main concerns regarding escapees who are forcibly repatriated to the DPRK. 

Eleonor Fernandez is a human rights officer in the Seoul Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR).

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

North Korea confirmed for the first time this week that it deployed troops to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, two days after Moscow’s military chief openly acknowledged Pyongyang’s involvement.

Korea Risk Group Executive Director Jeongmin Kim joins the podcast to discuss the reasoning behind the shift in the two countries’ official positions, as well as South Korean opposition lawmaker Lee Jae-myung’s victory in the primary to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee and North Korea’s launch of the first of its largest new warship class.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

Bruce Bennet, a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation, joins the podcast to discuss just how ironclad the U.S.-South Korea alliance really is, the growing plausibility of limited nuclear use by Pyongyang and the risks of miscalculation in a changing security environment.

He also delves into what North Korea military is learning from the war in Ukraine, its chemical and biological weapons posture and his insights from years of wargaming Korean conflict scenarios.

Dr. Bruce Bennett is a senior international and defense researcher at the RAND Corporation and a specialist in Northeast Asian security, military strategy and asymmetric threats — particularly weapons of mass destruction. He has conducted extensive research on deterrence, Korean Peninsula conflict scenarios and regime collapse planning for North Korea.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week for another new 10,000-home skyscraper street in Pyongyang, coinciding with the April 15 “Day of the Sun” holiday celebrating the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung.

NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to discuss the significance of the project, as well as the U.N.’s aviation body’s dismissal of a North Korean complaint about an alleged South Korean drone intrusion last year. He also talks about the number of North Korean refugees that arrived in South Korea in the first quarter of 2025.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

This week, Cathi Choi, co-director of Women Cross DMZ, joins the podcast to discuss the group’s efforts to formally end the Korean War, reunite divided families and place women at the forefront of peacebuilding on the Korean Peninsula.

Cathi discusses the group’s latest report, “Women’s Rights Under the Division System in Korea,” and the political, social and human rights implications of inter-Korean compact. She also talks about what she regards as the destabilizing impact of U.S. troops on the peninsula, as well as what steps can be taken to reunite families on either side of the DMZ. 

Cathi Choi is the executive director of Women Cross DMZ. She previously worked as a civil rights lawyer. 

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

North Korean state media coverage of the first international marathon in Pyongyang since 2019 underscored ongoing inconsistencies in how state propaganda mythologizes Kim ll Sung, changing the name of the event to remove reference to the founding leader’s birthplace Mangyongdae.

NK News founder and CEO Chad O’Carroll joins the podcast to discuss the ideological tensions surrounding the event’s new name and how it relates to trends that started last year.

He also discusses the recent death of one of the most extraordinary North Koreans to ever cross the inter-Korean border — Kim Shin-jo — as well as the future of efforts by Voice of America and Radio Free Asia to broadcast uncensored information into the DPRK following budget cuts by the Trump administration.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Fyodor Tertitskiy, a longtime Seoul-based scholar of North Korean history and author of “Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung,” a new biography of Kim Il Sung. Drawing on sources in Korean, Russian, Chinese and Japanese, Tertitskiy offers a fresh and deeply researched account of the man who founded one of the world’s most enduring authoritarian regimes.

We explore Kim’s improbable rise from guerrilla fighter to head of state at just 33, how he consolidated power and created a system of hereditary rule, and why his legacy still looms large over North Korea today. Tertitskiy also discusses the mythmaking around Kim’s persona, from teleportation to pine cone grenades, and examines the broader implications of his rule for global security and the study of dictatorship.

Fyodor Tertitskiy has been residing in South Korea since 2011. He earned his PhD from Seoul National University in 2017 and is currently a lecturer at Korea University. His works can be found on his ResearchGate profile. He has recently published “Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung,” a biography of Kim Il Sung. 

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

Hundreds of runners took to the streets of Pyongyang as North Korea hosted its premier international marathon race for the first time in six years on Sunday. 

NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko joins the podcast to discuss what this means for the future of tourism in the country as the event marked the first time that non-Russian visitors were allowed to visit Pyongyang for leisure since the DPRK shut its borders in Jan. 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He also discusses how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reportedly busy watching military drills simulating an attack on his neighbor to the south as the Constitutional Court announced its decision to uphold the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.