Resources

Through research, PSCORE offers recommendations to expand your knowledge about different aspects of North Korea with a variety of books, movies, documentaries and talks.

Latest report

Violation of Children's Rights in North Korea

PSCORE’s latest report addresses the human rights violations of children in Korea. The report focuses on three focal aspects: (1)Education System (2)Child Labor (3)Child 

For the Korean version, please click here.

PSCORE Reports

In this report, PSCORE addresses the prevalence of child labor in North Korea, with particular focus on the different types of arduous labor children must face both within and outside the education system.

This compilation of testimonies by PSCORE covers a wide range of the daily life in North Korea, from school to prison camps through collective farms and military service.

This report highlights the human rights’ violations that occur when North Korean citizens are sent to work abroad.

From a human rights standpoint, this report exposes how the North Korean education system violates human rights and proposes how to appropriately approach changes for North Korea’s education system.

This collection of slides contains facts and basic information about North Korea’s customs and human right violations. Subjects discussed in the slides are concerning education, food, labor, economy, media, culture, people, politics, and crime & punishment.

This book will discuss the serious human rights violations of North Korea, a nation widely known for its nuclear tests, hereditary dictatorship, and communism.

This paper is a thorough review of PSCORE’s ten year journey since its founding by Mr. Kim Young-Il in 2006.

This report compiles information about 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.

Books

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.

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 Blaine Harden

The real life story of Shin Dong-Hyuk, born and raised in concentration camp No. 14, one of the few who succeeded in escaping the camp to join South korea.

By Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot

Again 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 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 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 Brian Myers

Bryan Myers, North Korea’s analyst, gives us a interesting study on North Korean society and its worldview, drawing on extensive research into the regime’s domestic propaganda, including films, romance novels and other artifacts of the personality cult.

Movies

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.

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.

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.

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 engine by accident and drifts down to South Korea. After enduring brutal investigations in the South, he eventually gets sent back to North Korea.

Documentaries

Sky news

Sky’s Asia Correspondent Mark Stone meets people who suffered years of brutality in North Korean prison camps. He hears astonishing stories of those who have escaped one of the world’s most brutal regimes

N.C. Heikin’

Life in North Korea is examined through interviews with North Korean defectors. Included are stories from people who served time in North Korean prisons, former military officers, and artists, among others.

VBS TV

The documentary follows Vice journalists on their guided trip in North Korea.

Channel 4

This awarded documentary shows real life under the new leader Kim Jong Un, highlighting the contrasts between the different castes, and how USBs, cell phones and DVDs from the South are transforming North Koreans’ views of their world.

Talks

Adrian Hong and Dong Hyuk Shin – Google Tech Talks May, 12 2008

Hyeonseo Lee – The first TED TALK speaker between North Korean defectors 

Former PSCORE student

Documentaries And Testimonies By PSCORE

Learn about the life of North Korean children from North Korean themselves. Interviews gathered by PSCORE.

Defectors talk about the human rights’ violations in North Korea. Interviews gathered by PSCORE.