North Korea News Podcast by NK News

In this handover episode of the NK News Podcast, new host Alannah Hill sits down with longtime host Jacco Zwetsloot to look back on his time leading the show since its launch in Feb. 2018. 

They revisit the podcast’s first episode with Andrei Lankov, the major North Korea stories that defined that period and how the news beat changed from U.S.-DPRK summit diplomacy to today’s focus on North Korea-Russia ties.

Jacco reflects on some of the most memorable interviews from his roughly 400 episodes, including the extraordinary three-part interview with a U.S. citizen who entered North Korea without authorization, as well as conversations with defectors, diplomats and figures involved in U.S.-DPRK diplomacy. 

The episode also takes a look ahead, with Jacco confirming he will remain involved through a monthly podcast series called North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot, while Alannah takes over the main hosting role and focuses on more news-related topics week by week.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill 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.

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual violence.

NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin kicks off the podcast this week by discussing the long-running debate over the transfer of wartime operational control, or OPCON, from the U.S. to South Korea, following comments made by U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson.

He also examines growing Russia-North Korea cooperation, including a new “friendship hospital” project near the Wonsan-Kalma resort, and what it may signal about the durability of their ties beyond the war in Ukraine.

In the second half of this podcast, North Korean refugee and author Eunhee Park discusses her new memoir “The Courage To Die: A North Korean Woman's Escape and Rebirth in Freedom,” which recounts her childhood in Wonsan, years living in a North Korean orphanage and her eventual escape to South Korea by way of China.

She also discusses the challenges of resettling in South Korea, including facing discrimination, loneliness and the burden of adapting to a free society, as well as how writing her memoir helped her process the trauma and reclaim her identity.

Eunhee Park is a North Korean refugee, public speaker and author. Her work shares a clear, first-person account of childhood in the North, escape and rebuilding a life abroad. 

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 Correspondent Jooheon Kim kicks off the podcast this week by discussing North Korea-Japan relations, focusing on lingering tensions over the abductions issue, recent trilateral naval cooperation with Seoul and Washington, and Pyongyang’s criticism of Japan’s latest diplomatic Blue Book.

In the second half, the scholar Sayaka Chatani joins the podcast to explore the development of pro-North Korean communities in Japan and how they came to align themselves with Pyongyang’s national project.

She explains the origins of Chongryon and its role as a quasi-state institution for ethnic Koreans in postwar Japan, as well as the evolution of its school system and how identity, language and community ties shaped long-term ideological connections to North Korea.

Sayaka Chatani is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. She is the author of the new book “A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Post-Imperial Japan.”

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.

Korea Risk Group Executive Director Jeongmin Kim kicks off the podcast this week by discussing North Korea’s positive response after Seoul expressed regret for past civilian drone incursions, only to quickly undercut hopes for inter-Korean detente with more hardline messaging and a series of missile launches.

In the second half, Dr. Cathy Kang of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council — a group that advises South Korea’s president on inter-Korean issues — joins the podcast to discuss how her experience growing up in Europe has shaped her perspective on Korean unification and coexistence, as well as the role of overseas Koreans in public diplomacy.

She outlines how the advisory body gathers global input on North Korea policy and emphasizes the importance of maintaining dialogue and promoting peaceful coexistence. She argues that sustained engagement and cultural outreach are essential to preparing for future opportunities, despite declining interest in unification and North Korea’s rejection of inter-Korean rapprochement.

Dr. Cathy Kang is an advisory member at the Peaceful Unification Advisory Committee and an assistant professor at Plovdiv University. Her remarks in this episode do not represent the official position of the Presidential Unification Advisory Council.

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 founder Chad O’Carroll begins this week’s episode by discussing the death of North Korea’s longtime representative to the International Olympic Committee, a South Korean helicopter’s accidental flight into the demilitarized zone during a firefighting mission and Seoul’s expression of regret over civilian drone incursions.

In the second half, Jonathan Cheng, the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, joins the podcast to discuss his new book on how Christian practice and symbolism may have influenced the development of the DPRK’s leadership cult, particularly through Kim Il Sung’s early exposure to Christianity in Pyongyang.

He argues that while North Korea’s system incorporates multiple influences, this religious dimension offers an important lens for understanding the Kim regime’s structure and enduring features.

Jonathan Cheng is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and was previously the Korea bureau chief, running coverage of the Korean Peninsula. He is the author of “Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult.”

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 Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin kicks off this week’s episode with a look at Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s visit to Pyongyang for a summit last week, and his potential to serve as an intermediary between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump. The conversation explores Belarus’s evolving ties with the DPRK, including plans to establish an embassy in Pyongyang, expand economic cooperation and potentially allow visa-free travel for North Korean nationals. 

International security expert Ankit Panda joins in the second half of the episode for a wide-ranging analysis of North Korea’s military trajectory. The expert challenges assumptions about North Korea’s opacity, arguing that Pyongyang often signals its intentions clearly as part of a deterrence strategy. He also examines how the country is modernizing its nuclear and conventional forces in multiple areas, including missiles, drones, naval platforms and potentially space capabilities. 

Panda situates North Korea’s strategy within the context of recent conflicts, particularly the ongoing war involving Iran, and draws out lessons Pyongyang may be absorbing about deterrence, preemption and long-term conflict. He also explores how advances in missile technology, drone warfare and cost asymmetry are reshaping modern warfare, with implications for the Korean Peninsula. 

Ankit Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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 Correspondent Joon Ha Park opens this week’s episode by discussing the first session of the new Supreme People’s Assembly, which reappointed Kim Jong Un as North Korea’s head of state and carried out a generational reshuffle of officials.

He also discusses Pyongyang’s increasingly hardline rhetoric toward South Korea and the U.S., Kim Yo Jong’s rejection of Japan’s latest diplomatic outreach and the optics of Kim Jong Un’s daughter joining him at a recent military inspection.

In the second half of the episode, former German Ambassador to North Korea Pit Heltmann reflects on his time in Pyongyang from 2018 to 2020, offering a rare look into diplomatic life inside the country and how engagement changed during the early days of the pandemic.

The interview explores the challenges of diplomacy in the DPRK, the limitations on international engagement and aid projects and the factors complicating a potential reopening of the German Embassy.

Pit Heltmann is a career German diplomat who served as the country’s ambassador in Pyongyang from 2018-2020, making him the last resident envoy before North Korea’s self-imposed COVID-19 closure. He later served as consul general in Shanghai before retiring in 2024. 

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, NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin opens the episode with a roundup of recent developments on the Korean Peninsula, including the resumption of China-North Korea passenger rail service and plans to restart flights.

He also touches on the DPRK’s weekend test of multiple launch rocket systems, as well as how Russian media is portraying the North’s involvement in the Ukraine war.

 missile launches, such as the tests of long-range multiple launch rocket systems, as well as the regime’s growing ties with Russia, including how the DPRK’s involvement in the Ukraine war is being portrayed by Russian media.

In the second half of the episode, Peter Ward discusses his latest research on North Korea’s legal system and expanding crackdowns on a range of “unsocialist activities.” He explains how the regime balances enforcement and tolerance in the economic sphere while tightening control over information and ideology.

The interview also explores broader trends under leader Kim Jong Un, including shifts in elite politics, the evolution of North Korea’s nuclear strategy and the outcome of the recent Ninth Party Congress.

Peter Ward is a research fellow at the Sejong Institute. His work focuses on North Korean politics, the economy and society. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna.

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 Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy and Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) Executive Director Hanna Song join this week’s episode of the NK News Podcast. 

The news roundup begins with the sudden cancellation of the Pyongyang International Marathon, before turning to Seoul’s move to adopt a new term for North Korean-born residents in the South, and the Unification Ministry’s renewed push for a peace declaration and a broader “peace regime.”

In the latter part of the episode, Hanna delves into NKDB’s newly released report “The Machinery Behind the Forced Repatriation of North Koreans in China,” and explains why forced repatriation remains one of the most persistent human rights concerns facing North Korean escapees.

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.

International security expert Ankit Panda joins the podcast this week to unpack the latest U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran and what they could mean for North Korea’s deterrence thinking. The conversation covers what does and doesn’t translate to the Korean Peninsula: the impact of geography and escalation dynamics, why saturation tactics and interceptor “magazine depth” matter and the contrast between Iran’s threshold posture and North Korea’s workable nuclear deterrent.

He also discusses the new five-year military plan that Kim Jong Un outlined at the Ninth Party Congress, highlighting the significance of the DPRK’s emphasis on counterspace capabilities and raising questions about its anti-satellite options.

Ankit Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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 insights from our very own journalists.