It is one of the hardest places in the world to tweet from but there is a network of experts covering everything from culture to politics. Heres our pick to get you started North Korea is probably one of the hardest places on the planet to tweet from. The web is severely restricted, with access to computers and mobiles phone available to an elite few . Most North Koreans only have access to a state...
Every week our partner site NK News asks a North Korean in exile a question from a reader. Darren P in Bangkok asked: How does the dating scene work in North Korea? When it comes to relationships, Pyongyang tries to instil "love for revolutionary comrades" over romance, but people reject it. When I lived in Pyongyang we couldnt travel around the country and didnt have any freedom of speech....
After decades of absolute control, Pyongyang's iron grip on the lives of ordinary citizens is finally slipping. Tania Branigan meets the people who no longer believe the propaganda Inside North Korea in pictures If she is lucky - if her husband or children can slip away unnoticed to the riverside, nearer the Chinese phone masts - Chae Un-ee can talk to her family each day. Talk is perhaps an exaggeration;...
The best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week Continue reading... ...
14-18 April : Read up on the week's winners, losers, controversies and reports Democracy , as millions cast their votes on the biggest polling day of the Indian elections , with voter turnout higher than in 2009. Continue reading... ...
You might think the dictator's demand for tonsorial conformity is madness. But where the tenth commandment failed, he could succeed In 1948, after the Tito-Stalin split, people in Yugoslavia were confused for years, they had been taught by the Communist party of Yugoslavia to worship Stalin, yet now he was supposed to be their greatest enemy. Those who were not able to follow the new party instructions...
Inquiry head Michael Kirby says leaders should be hit with sanctions and referred to international criminal court The United Nations security council should slap targeted sanctions on North Korean officials responsible for grave human rights abuses and refer them to the international criminal court (ICC), the head of a special UN inquiry said on Thursday. The retired Australian judge Michael Kirby...
Follow the Guardian and our partners for unique reporting and analysis from both inside and outside this extraordinary country The worlds fascination with North Korea is in inverse proportion to what we know about this so-called hermit kingdom. Propaganda portrays a brave and glorious nation, once ravaged by American aggression, still defending itself against hostile forces under the devoted care...
Allowing entrants from outside North Korea for the first time, the Pyongyang marathon offered a truly unique opportunity The best pictures from the event London was not the only city to host a marathon last Sunday and, it can be argued, neither was it the most interesting, despite the presence of Olympic hero Mo Farah for the first time. In North Korea, 800 professional and amateur runners were at...
Salon owner says two officials from nearby embassy asked him to take down picture of North Korean leader Seeking an arresting image to promote a special offer, a hairdressers in west London attracted more than just extra customers when it used a large poster of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in its window. Continue reading... ...
North Koreans watch fireworks and lay flowers on Tuesday for the 102nd birthday of founder Kim Il-Sung who died in 1994. North Korean state TV shows people dancing in a square in the capital Pyongyang on the national holiday known as the Day of the Sun Continue reading... ...
For her film Aim High in Creation!, Australian director Anna Broinowski mined the late dictators cinematic secrets to make her own propaganda about fracking in Sydney Angered at the prospect of Sydney Parks green hills being punctured by coal seam gas wells, filmmaker Anna Broinowski sets out to rouse the people to action. Her opponent, the energy giant Santos, runs slick ads . Their farmers farming...
Video footage from North Korea's state news agency apparently shows thousands of North Koreans celebrating Kim Jong-un's re-election as first chairman of the national defence commission, the military's governing body. The reclusive country's supreme leader was elected again by the supreme people's assembly, North Korea's parliament Continue reading... ...
PM takes tough talk on Pyongyang to next level with visit to demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas Tony Abbott has visited the "tensest border on earth", stepping into North Korean territory and encountering soldiers from the rogue state. Australia's prime minister on Wednesday took his tough talk on Pyongyang to the next level, inspecting first-hand the demilitarised zone dividing...
What can the 10 South Korean writers selected for the London Book Fair tell us about a country that has been cut in two? After two years of political hot potatoes first China and then Turkey this year's "market focus" country presents a different challenge to the London Book Fair, which runs this week: who wants to read books from Korea? The choice of name could be dismissed as opportunistically...
Defense secretary on tour of Pacific nations Visit a day after pointed speech in Japan Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to get a rare tour on Monday of China's first aircraft carrier, becoming the first foreign visitor to go aboard the ship. A senior defence official said Hagel requested the visit, which comes a day after he told reporters that China must better respect its neighbours a pointed...
US defence secretary says destroyers are to counter the North Korean threat, and says China must respect its neighbours The US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, delivered a two-pronged warning to Asia Pacific nations on Sunday, announcing that the US would send two additional ballistic missile destroyers to Japan to counter the North Korean threat, and saying China must better respect its neighbours....
Pyongyang's deputy UN ambassador warns US that moves viewed as crossing 'red line' will provoke countermeasures North Korea on Friday accused the US of being "hell-bent on regime change" and warned that any manoeuvres with that intention will be viewed as a "red line" that will result in countermeasures. Pyongyang's deputy United Nations ambassador, Ri Tong Il, also repeated that...
Park Geun-hye is described as a 'cold-blooded animal' and 'little girl' in official newspaper after speech on reunification North Korea has launched a vicious, misogynist tirade against the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, after she gave a speech on reunification in Germany. While the North's propaganda is often vitriolic, the highly personalised and sexist nature of the attack the latest salvo...
South Korean rescuers search for missing sailors after bodies of two are found along with three survivors The bodies of two North Korean sailors and three survivors have been found off the coast of South Korea after their cargo ship sank. South Korean rescuers are searching for 11 others still missing. The Mongolian-flagged ship was carrying 16 North Korean crew members when it sent a distress signal...