Representatives from Young Pioneer Tours and Koryo Tours crossed over the Chinese border to the Rason Special Economic Zone last week as part of preparatory efforts to resume full-fledged tours to the DPRK in the near future, marking a first since before the pandemic.

Rowan Beard and Greg Vaczi join the podcast shortly upon their return from North Korea to discuss how their trips came about, the highlights of their visits and the changes they observed in the country in the five years since its borders were shut to Western travelers.

Rowan Beard is the co-founder of Young Pioneers Tours.

Greg Vaczi is a tour manager at Koryo Tours.

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 announced that old and deteriorating neighborhoods of Pyongyang will be redeveloped in the coming years, according to state media this week.

NK News Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy joins the podcast to discuss Kim’s revelation that major annual residential construction projects in Pyongyang won’t end when the current 50,000-home project wraps up next year, as well as the impact the Trump administration’s freeze of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funds has on DPRK human rights groups and the return of Western tour companies to North Korea for the first time since before the pandemic.

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 today’s episode, intellectual historian Thomas Stock discusses his paper "Polyphonic Peace: The 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang," which explores North Korea's hosting of the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students.

This massive event, which brought together 15,000 young people from over 150 countries, was North Korea’s attempt to counter South Korea’s global influence after the 1988 Olympics and reinforce its ideological authority.

The episode also delves into East Germany’s key role, the festival’s propaganda impact and its significance in North Korea’s rivalry with South Korea.

Dr Thomas Stock is an intellectual historian of Korea and the Cold War, specialized in the evolution of North Korean ideology. He is currently a history teacher in Massachusetts, USA.

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.

The leader of South Korea’s main opposition party called for renewed dialogue with North Korea this week, while emphasizing the need to maintain strong military readiness amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. 

NK News Correspondent Jeongmin Kim joins the podcast to discuss what Lee Jae-myung, the current frontrunner in multiple presidential polls, has to say about DPRK engagement, as well as a wide-ranging interview Russia’s ambassador to North Korea gave to Russian media and a meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and Japan during which they vowed to push for the “complete denuclearization” of the DPRK.

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 speak with Dan Gudgeon, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Vienna, about how peace narratives shape inter-Korean relations. Drawing from his research on South Korea’s Sunshine Policy era, Dan explains how national identity and "ontological security" influence public and political willingness to engage in peace building. 

He then discusses whether peace narratives can coexist with military deterrence, how global powers like the U.S. influence inter-Korean diplomacy, and what lessons South Korea should take if peace with the DPRK talks resume. 

Dan Gudgeon is a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna. He attained his Ph.D. from the University of North Korean Studies and previously worked for the Korean Sharing Movement, an inter-Korean cooperation NGO in Seoul.

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 issued its first statement directed at U.S. President Donald Trump and his DPRK policy since his inauguration two weeks ago.

NK News founder Chad O’Carroll joins the podcast to discuss Pyongyang’s remarks as well as reports that Ukraine killed multiple North Korean officers in a strike on a command post in Russia’s Kursk region and DPRK troops undergoing “error correction” training.

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.

Researcher Kap Seol, a frequent contributor to the leftist magazine Jacobin, joins the podcast to discuss his recent article about how the deployment of DPRK troops to fight in Ukraine could lead South Korea to respond by escalating its own involvement. 

The self-described former socialist also talks about the similarities between Kim Il Sung and Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu, while touching on historical topics like the life of a revolutionary Korean in 1930s China and the persistent allegations of North Korean involvement in the 1980 Gwangju Uprising

Kap Seol is a Korean writer and researcher based in New York. His writings have appeared in Jacobin, Labor Notes, In These Times, Business Insider and other publications. 

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 launched multiple sea-to-surface strategic cruise missiles on Saturday, with leader Kim Jong Un overseeing the first weapons test since Donald Trump assumed the U.S. presidency.

NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins the podcast to discuss the launch, as well as a former ROK spy likening President Yoon Suk-yeol’s alleged order to arrest lawmakers to the tactics of North Korean secret police. He also discusses new revelations about the fate of the DPRK’s United Front Department.

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.

North Korea-Russia ties have grown by leaps and bounds since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, while its relationship with China appears to have suffered as a result.

This week, expert Lyle Goldstein joins the podcast to share insights into Pyongyang’s strategic partnerships with its neighbors and the complex dynamics that shape its nuclear ambitions. He also discusses what could come now that Donald Trump has been inaugurated and why he believes that Trump-Kim engagement 2.0 could help deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. 

Lyle J. Goldstein is the director of the Asia Program at Defense Priorities, a nonprofit think tank. He is also director of the China Initiative and senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. He is wrapping up a book length project that examines China-Russia relations in the 21st century.

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.

In this episode, NK News Deputy Managing Editor Alannah Hill dives into the latest evidence of North Korea’s military involvement in the war in Ukraine, focusing on recently recovered handwritten notes detailing Kim Jong Un’s message to North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces. She also talks about how Kyiv’s decision to reveal the identities of captured DPRK soldiers has raised ethnical concerns.

Then, she discusses North Korean state media’s coverage of impeached ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol’s arrest last week and the first statement by the leader’s sister Kim Yo Jong in some two months, rejecting the Belarusian leader’s assertion that Pyongyang reached out to request a top-level summit. 

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.