North Korea News Podcast by NK News

Jeongmin Kim hosts this week’s NK News Podcast and is joined by Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko to discuss a series of recent satellite imagery investigations into North Korea’s military infrastructure, beginning with an unusual new facility at a factory producing short-range ballistic missiles supplied to Russia. Colin explains why North Korea built and then […]

Former U.N. official Jerome Sauvage joins this week’s podcast to discuss his new book, Witness to North Korea: Three Years on the Ground in the DPRK, which recounts his posting in Pyongyang from late 2009 to early 2013. He explains why he accepted one of the U.N.’s most difficult assignments and what it took to […]

NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins this week’s podcast to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim that Russia has requested another 30,000 North Korean troops for its war against Ukraine. He explains how realistic a deployment of that size would be, why Russia may be preparing facilities in the Voronezh region and whether DPRK […]

This month, Dr. Rüdiger Frank joins North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot to discuss how decades of marketization have transformed North Korea’s economy and society, and why old assumptions about engagement and pressure may no longer apply. He talks about the emergence of what he describes as a sizable North Korean middle class, how smartphones, […]

This week, the NK News Podcast presents a special episode on one of the most unlikely stories in World Cup history: North Korea’s extraordinary run at the 1966 tournament and the English town that embraced the team as its own. Sixty years after the DPRK stunned Italy and reached the quarterfinals, this episode revisits how […]

NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin joins this week’s podcast to discuss North Korea’s deepening ties with China and Russia, starting with Premier Pak Thae Song’s meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing during a visit marking the 65th anniversary of the China-DPRK alliance treaty. He also previews Wang Huning’s upcoming visit to Pyongyang and explains […]

NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko joins this week’s podcast to discuss North Korea’s naval modernization push, from Kim Jong Un’s latest cruise missile test from the Kang Kon destroyer to the recent commissioning of the Choe Hyon, the country’s first 5,000-ton warship to formally enter service. He also breaks down his latest NK […]

This week’s episode of the NK News Podcast looks at North Korea’s military modernization, from Kim Jong Un’s new 5,000-ton Choe Hyon destroyer to recent tactical missile and artillery tests. Korea Risk Group Correspondent Joon Ha Park discusses what the destroyer adds to Pyongyang’s navy, why its assignment to the West Sea Fleet matters and […]

This week’s episode of the NK News Podcast looks at North Korea’s decision to recall its ambassador to the U.K. just weeks after his appointment, in protest over British sanctions on the Songdowon International Children’s Camp.  NK News Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy discusses why the camp holds symbolic importance for Pyongyang, its links to Russia […]

This month, retired U.S. Army Col. Brian Davis joins North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot to discuss lessons from his nearly 40-year career spanning some of the most consequential periods in U.S.-DPRK relations. He talks about how intelligence on North Korea is gathered and analyzed, how U.S. and South Korean military priorities shifted from conventional […]