Latest Reports
Digital Hostages: Internet Freedom in North Korea
This report examines the state of internet freedom in North Korea, shedding light on the limited access to information, suppression of free expression, and the government's overarching control over online activities.
English | Korean
Human Rights in the DPRK: 10 years after COI
10 years later we revisit the report made by the United Nations Comission of Inquiry and take a look at the current human rights situation in the DPRK
English | Korean
PSCORE Reports
Deepen your knowledge
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!
This booklet synthesizes various indices that show how North Korea has been
plagued by profound failures, while the Republic of Korea, declared by the United
Nations as the sole legitimate government on the Korean Peninsula 75 years ago,
has flourished into a democratic and economically advanced nation.
English | Korean
This booklet has been produced based on the main contents of the seminar titled ‘North Korean Human Rights and the Camp David Declaration’ held on September 25, 2023 and Professor Lee Shin-hwa’s paper on the importance and challenges of international legal and strategic approaches to the North Korean human rights issue.
English | Korean
In the year 2014, the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights in the DPRK concluded that human rights abuses were still occurring on a structural level extending into all aspects of life. North Koreans are under extensive control of the government when using the Internet and individual digital devices, which is unimaginable for most people as in this new digital world the Internet has become a part of people’s daily
lives.
English | Korea
During the first half of 2019, there were over 33,000 defectors in South Korea. We are currently living in a time when, while the Korean Peninsula is still divided, the chances of meeting a North Korean are high. If that is the case, are we capable of communicating with them with no problems?
English | Korean
This report covers Human Rights abuses committed by the North Korean authorities in the territory of the Democratic People Republic of Korea over the course of the last decade.
English
This paper is a review of PSCORE's ten-year journey since its founding by Mr. Kim Young II in 2006.
English
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.
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
By Park Yeonmi
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.
By Barbara Demick
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.
By Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot
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.
By Lee Hyeonseo
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.
By Young-Sook Moon
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.
By Bandi
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.