Top Headlines From North Korea - October 2025

North Koreans Embrace Fall “Moving Season” for Practical Reasons

A recent report highlights a growing trend of North Koreans moving homes during the autumn, mirroring a pattern common in South Korea. This "moving season" is not driven by state orders but by the personal, practical desires of ordinary families seeking a better quality of life.

• A survey of residents in 13 cities found the primary motivations are practical: to be closer to reliable water and electricity sources, or nearer to marketplaces and schools.

• The trend reveals that citizens are actively making decisions to improve their living situations, often paying a premium for a smaller home if it has better utilities.

• Some moves are also driven by a need to escape state surveillance or displacement from state development projects, for which residents reportedly receive no new housing.

Source: Daily NK, Maeil Business

A North Korean Family's New Life, 10 Years After Their Escape

A decade after the BBC documented their harrowing 3,000-kilometer journey to freedom, the Park family shares their story of adjustment and life in South Korea. The follow-up provides a rare look at the long-term challenges and triumphs of rebuilding a life from scratch.

• The family reflects on the memories of their escape and the intense fear of being caught and repatriated, a fate they knew would mean certain death.

• They discuss the profound cultural and psychological adjustments to life in a free, modern society, from learning a new way of speaking to dealing with the trauma of their past.

• The story contrasts their current freedom with the increased crackdowns and "shoot-to-kill" border policies that have made such escapes nearly impossible today.

Source: BBC News (YouTube)

Sisters of Japanese Woman Abducted by North Korea to Meet US President

The sisters of Keiko Arimoto, a Japanese student abducted by North Korean agents in 1983, are meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit to Japan. Their story highlights a decades-long search for answers and a family's refusal to give up hope.

• Keiko Arimoto was 23 and studying in London when she was lured to Denmark and abducted to North Korea; her family has not seen her in over 40 years.

• Her sisters, now in their 60s, are continuing their elderly parents' fight, seeking international pressure to get an accounting for Keiko and other abductees.

• The meeting transforms a high-level political visit into a deeply personal plea, focusing on the human cost of the regime's past actions.

Source: JAPAN Forward

Why North Korea fears the “Squid Game effect”

• Three defectors, recently interviewed, confirmed that smuggled South Korean shows, like Autumn In My Heart and Squid Game, opened their eyes to the lies of the regime and the prosperity of the outside world, directly inspiring their escapes.

• The regime has responded with extreme measures, including the 2020 "Law on Rejecting Reactionary Thought and Culture," which makes viewing or distributing foreign media punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Source: Index on Censorship, Squid Game for North Koreans

North Korean Community in Japan

Why North Korea has children's schools in Japan Follow Johnny to stay up to date on Vox Borders: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnnywharris Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnnyharrisvox Last week's episode: https://youtu.be/Wx_2SVm9Jgo My dispatch about Japan's rising right-wing nationalism: https://youtu.be/IHJsoCAREsg Original Music by Rare Henderson: https://www.rarehenderson.com/audio The six Vox Borders documentaries, presented by lululemon, are publishing weekly on Tuesdays.

Lesser-known by outsiders, the community in Japan called the "Chongryon" is composed of Korean minorities who identify with North Korea. 

Ethnically Korean but brought over during Japanese occupation of the peninsula, the 150,000 people claiming North Korea as both their promised land and benefactors are often discriminated against in Japan. 

The cycle of discrimination leading to increased loyalty to the Kim regime and insulation is often repeated but has more recently escalated to issues of safety. 

The Vox Borders documentary above delves into this unknown community and the fine line between cultural barriers versus physical borders.

"When we talk about North Korea, we forget what’s happening to its people"

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/when-we-talk-about-north-korea-we-forget-whats-happening-to-its-people

On the “Humble Opinion” segment of PBS newshour, host Judy Woodruff spoke with Min Jin Lee about North Korea and the aspect we forget about most often: its people.

As a Korean-American writer, Lee has given lectures and talks on writing, literature, and politics all throughout the US and Asia. As a novelist, Lee has written historical fiction stories about Korean families in Japan.

However, in her most recent talk, Lee delves into her personal history and connection to North Korea. She describes the journey her father made at 16, in the height of the Korean War, aboard a US refugee ship.

Imagine being 16, and because there is a war, you must leave your birthplace and never see your mother again. Imagine now knowing that she must be dead, based only on natural life expectancy, rather than on a real moment in time.

Imagine if you didn’t know that this was your last goodbye.

Lee describes the living conditions she imagines her cousin in—an authoritarian regime clamping down on freedom of movement and expression, and the dangers awaiting her in China if she should defect. Her reminder comes at a time when fears of a nuclear standoff are pervasive and analysis of Kim Jong Un are featured on international newscasts.

Lee reminds us that amid these discussions, we can keep compassion at our core:

So, when I hear about nuclear weapons, like you, I am afraid. But we can also remember the democratic values we cherish. We can learn more about how we can help. And we can have compassion for our global brothers and sisters who are trapped in a dystopian invention not of their making.