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Possible Detention Centers Built Across Country
Known locations of new facilities.Normally I don't like to write posts about unidentified things. Plenty of speculation exists about what goes on in North Korea as it is, and I keep this page updated...
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Dissecting the DMZ
I've written about the DMZ before, discussing how it has changed over the last decade or so. But now I would like to go into greater detail about its actual functionality - how it's laid out, what kind...
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AccessDPRK in 2022
This last year was a great one for AccessDPRK, and thanks to your continued readership and for the support of Patreon backers, 2023 has some very cool things in store.There were two main events for the...
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Pyongsan Uranium Plant Reservoir Expansion
On New Year's Eve, following the Sixth Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Party's 8th Central Committee, Kim Jong Un laid out his plan to "exponentially increase"the number of nuclear warheads North Korea...
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North Korea's Expanding Coastline
Seawall construction at the Honggongdo Tidelands Project. Image via KCNA, 2017.Land reclamation has history dating back centuries around the world. Whether it's draining marshes to grow more food or...
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AccessDPRK Free Map Update 1.1
Two years I ago I published the largest freely available map on North Korea ever created. After creating maps for a decade, I didn't want to keep re-mapping the whole country over and over. However,...
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Construction at Huichon
Huichon is an industrial city in Chagang Province, North Korea that has been experiencing a construction boom over the last few years.This latest round of work would likely not have occurred if it...
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Tee-up, North Korea's Golf Courses
Pyongyang Golf Club in 2015, prior to expansion program. (CC BY-SA 2.0, Uri Tours)It is often erroneously reported that North Korea only has a single golf course. In fact, the country has three, but...
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Bye, Bye Airports
Ever since Kim Jong Un came to power, North Korea's aviation infrastructure has undergone a series of changes, making it difficult to keep an up-to-date record of what airports and landing strips exist...
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Kim Jong Un's Underground Pyongyang
Verifying the existence of underground facilities can be a difficult task, especially when their existence is a state secret. But rumors eventually come out and tantalizing hints of their presence can...
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Building North Korea's Bomb
If you've ever looked at a diagram of a nuclear bomb (whether of Little Boy or of a modern miniaturized warhead like the W-87), you might be forgiven for thinking constructing such devices looks fairly...
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Pyongyang: COVID Fortress
AccessDPRK has been at the forefront of using satellite imagery to uncover North Korea's anti-pandemic measures. It was the first to use satellite imagery to verify reports of the "border blockade", it...
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Inside North Korea 2023
As has become tradition with each new map release, here is a list of what's inside. Although this only reflects what the 2023 Pro Map captured, with over 70,500 sites mapped and organized into 100+...
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Post-COVID Update - Onpho and Tanchon
With internal pandemic restrictions slowly now lifting and international trade beginning to resume (albeit still at much reduced levels), some projects that had been stalled as a result of COVID and...
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Farming on the Frontier
North Korea shares 1,369.3 km of border with China and Russia. Predominately demarcated by the Yalu and Tumen rivers, the border regions are mountainous, with the available farmland often squeezed into...
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DPRK's Fuel Transport and Storage Network: an Introduction
North Korea doesn't have its own domestic supply of oil and relies on legal and illicit transfers of petroleum products for its economy to function. While AccessDPRK has documented the proliferation of...
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A Review of the Sunchon Kyo-hwa-so
Located in the mountains west of the city of Sunchon, near a village called Unbong-dong, is a little-known reeducation labor camp (kyo-hwa-so) at 39.436033° 125.795551°. Kyo-hwa-so are for those...
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North Korea's Prison Camps: 10 years later
This year is the 10th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry report on human rights in North Korea. Using evidence from defector testimony, submissions from UN member...
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Reprocessing Activity at the Pakchon Uranium Concentration Pilot Plant
The Pakchon Uranium Concentration Pilot Plant is North Korea's first uranium concentration plant. Converted from a graphite processing facility, Pakchon began to process uranium ore into "yellowcake"...
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Lost Villages of the DMZ
The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the two Koreas takes its shape from the battle lines that existed at the time of its creation in 1953 as part of the Armistice, which froze the Korean War but...
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Kim's 116-km-Long Palace Highway
Access to the various palaces and villas around the country is provided by relatively short runs of roadway - a few kilometers or so - coming off of the local road network. But there is also a highway...
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The Development of North Korea's Northern Border Wall
Ever since the mass defections and rise in illegal trade caused by the 1990s famine, North Korea has tightened its grip on border security with increasing severity, but its northern border was still...
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Kyo-hwa-so No. 2 - Tongrim Reeducation Camp
North Korea operates hundreds of prisons and detention centers of various types, but only a couple dozen current and former sites have been properly identified through the use of satellite imagery and...
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Paraglider Training Facilities Uncovered
North Korea has nine active airborne training facilities that use jump towers to qualify paratroopers. This has been a topic covered by AccessDPRK and others in the past. However, there are also at...
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Nuclear Infrastructure: Yongdeok High Explosives Test Site
Deep in the western hills and mountains of North Korea lies a large fenced-off complex that occupies an entire valley. Just 7.4 km from the ancient city gate of Kusong is the Yongdeok High Explosives...
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