Recent North Korea news found around the web

North Korea made headlines in January and February with actions that affect both its own people and the world.

Vaccine hack

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported on February 16, 2021 that North Korea attempted to hack Pfizer’s servers to steal coronavirus vaccine information.

• It was unclear exactly when the Pfizer hack occurred or if it was successful

• Pfizer did not comment on the hack

• Through Covax, the World Health Organization’s vaccine sharing program, North Korea is expected to receive nearly 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine

• Read more on US News

Economic demise

In the COVID pandemic, North Korea’s economy continues to spiral. Kim Jong Un has criticized his cabinet for the failure and has fired a senior economic official.

• North Korea’s lack of technology and farm productivity had already caused 40% of North Korea’s population, 10.1 million people, to lack food security prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• In 2020, border closure with China caused North Korea’s trade to drop by 75%.

• North Korea’s factory outputs are at their lowest since 2011.

• Prices of imported food have quadrupled.

• The UN Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that half of the country is currently undernourished.

• Read more on apnews.com

Torture, incarceration and slavery

A landmark Human Rights Council report has accused North Korea of torture, inhumane incarceration, and slavery.

• Those convicted are charged with “crimes that constitute the exercise of fundamental human rights” such as sharing information, accessing media, or practicing religion.

• North Korean prisons focus on the “systematic infliction of severe physical and mental pain or suffering upon detainees, through the infliction of beatings, stress positions and starvation...”

• The Council has reported inhumanity equivalent to slavery: “the extraction of forced labour can amount to enslavement if it is accompanied by aggravating circumstances that effectively destroy the juridical personhood of the victim...”

• The United Nations General Assembly is set to review the newest report on North Korea published by the Human Rights Council in February.

• Read more

Buying nukes with stolen cryptocurrency

A confidential report to the UN Security Council accuses North Korea of having stolen over $300 million to produce a nuclear arsenal.

• An anonymous country has filed reports to the UN claiming that North Korea has stolen $316.4 million in virtual currency from 2019 through 2020.

• The same accusation has reported that these hacked funds were used in the production of nuclear material and building ballistic missiles

• The report, which currently held by the United Nations Security Council, is confidential and most likely be released in the next 6 months

• Read more on cnn.com

Discipline Kim Yo Jong?

It is unclear if Kim Yo Jong, sister to Kim Jong Un, is being punished for making hostile provocations toward South Korea 

• Kim Yo Jong, who became more vocal and visible in the summer of 2020 in Kim Jong Un’s mysterious absence, has recently been demoted from "first vice department director" to "vice department director” in North Korea’s Party Congress.

• Experts are unsure whether the demotion is simply due to changes in the North Korean politburo or an intentional punishment for her inflammatory actions and remarks against South Korea in June of 2020.

• In January, Kim Yo Jong continued to criticize South Korea’s leaders, calling them a “truly weird group” with a “hostile approach toward the fellow countrymen in the north.’

• Read more on cnn.com

The darkness of North Korea continues and is a reminder for us to intercede in prayer for both the leadership that pursues these acts and the people of North Korea that suffers as a result.