Latest Reports
Decoding Crimes: Unveiling North Korea's Cyber Threats
Decoding Crimes: Unveiling North Korea’s Cyber Threats is the first report to connect North Korea’s cyber operations to systemic human rights violations. It explains how the regime uses cyberattacks not only for financial gain, but also to surveil, intimidate, and silence defectors, activists, and journalists. Developed by PSCORE, the report was presented at the UN Human Rights Council.
2024 Seoul Moot Tribunal: DPRK Political Prison Camps
The 2024 North Korean Human Rights Moot Tribunal report presents the outcome of a moot pre-tribal hearing focused on crimes against humanity committed by the North Korean regime. Drawing from real-life testimonies and international law, it explores legal accountability and justice mechanisms. The initative was led by PSCORE in collaboration with legal experts and institutions.
English
PSCORE Reports
We provide data and testimonies for public use. Through interviews with North Korean defectors living in South Korea, we provide reports to our reader with a unique perspective that can only be found here at PSCORE. Feel free to take part of our reports!
The Korean War 1950-1953
To expand your knowledge, we have made a list of recommendations for you with a variety of books, movies, documentaries, and TEDTalks that cover different aspects of North Korea and its history as well as defectors’ personal experiences. Why not familiarize yourself with how it all started during the Korean War between 1950-1953? Don’t forget to download and read our reports as well to deepen your knowledge further.
TEDTalk: Defectors' Stories
Documentaries
The Story of Us
Morgan Freeman has recently released a great documentary “The Story of Us”, the first episode of which covers a North Korean defector’s story. You can find the trailer here – make sure to watch it on Netflix!
Inside North Korea
My Hometown Means the Sea:
A North Korean Defector
North Korea - Mind Blowing Games
Movie Recommendations
Crossing
Yong-Soo (Cha In-Pyo) lives in a small coal-mine village in North Korea with his wife and young son. Although living in extreme poverty, the family is happy just to be with each other. Then one day, Yong-Soo’s pregnant wife becomes critically ill. Let alone medicine, Yong-soo can’t even find food for her in North Korea. So he secretly crosses the borders of China hoping to find the medicine for his wife
48m
Located on the border between North Korea and China, the Amnok River, or Yalu River in Chinese, separates the two countries by just 48 meters. “48m” captures the devastating circumstances that drive North Koreans to escape as well as what happens when they get caught. The film is co-produced and financed by a group of North Korean defectors.
Apostle
In a small North Korean village near the border of China, there are believers who get together in an underground church, away from the eyes of the persecuting government. When the missionary from China, their only support route, is cut off, things begin to get very tense.
Over the Border
Kim Sun-ho is a horn player for the Mansoodae Art Company, Pyongyang's state orchestra. He comes from a well-to-do family in North Korea and is about to marry his sweetheart, War Memorial guide Lee Yeon-hwa. One day, Sun-ho's family receives a letter from his grandfather in Seoul, whom they had thought was dead.
The Net (2016)
A North Korean fisherman breaks his boat by accident and floats to South Korea. After going through violent interrogations in the south he is repatriated back to North Korea.
Book Recommendations
The real story of Park Yeonmi who escaped with her mother in 2007 at 13, only to be sold as a slave in China, before she could finally reach South Korea in 2009.
Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years, witnessing the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
A true story of a North Korean defector, Kang Chol-Hwan, who came from a privileged family in Pyongyang but was imprisoned at the age of 9 for a crime his grandfather had - supposedly - committed.
In her memoirs, Lee Hyeonseo tells the story of her escape to China, and the struggles she faced when trying to adapt to a “free” life, and when crossing the border again to help her family escape.
This book tells the fictional-yet-very close to reality story of Yeong-dae, who loses both his parents during the famine and sets off on a desperate journey to China to find his sister.
The manuscript of seven short stories was smuggled out of North Korea in 2014; the author, who still lives there, tells through fiction the daily lives of North Koreans.