NK News is an American subscription-based news website that provides stories and analysis about

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. Established in 2011, it is headquartered in

Seoul, South Korea Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

with reporters in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Reporting is based on information collected from in-country sources, recently returned western visitors to North Korea, stories filed by the

Korean Central News Agency The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) () is the state news agency of North Korea. The agency portrays the views of the North Korean government for both domestic and foreign consumption. It was established on December 5, 1946, and now features ...

(KCNA), interviews with defectors, and reports published by

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

and western governments. The site's founder and Managing Director is Chad O'Carroll, a former employee of the

German Marshall Fund The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a non-partisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union. Founded in 1972, through a gift from the W ...

, who has written on North Korea and North Korea issues for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''.

Regular features

* ''Ask a North Korean'': a forum whereby readers can submit questions about daily life in North Korea which are answered by a panel of four defectors. The column covering

Jang Song-thaek Jang Song-thaek (January or February 1946 – 12 December 2013) was a North Korean politician. He was married to Kim Kyong-hui, the only daughter of North Korean premier Kim Il Sung and his first wife Kim Jong Suk, and only sister of North Kor ...

's execution received particular attention. * ''Expert Survey'': in which various Korean and Western experts on the politics, economics and history of North Korea provide answers to a questionnaire covering various aspects of North Korea's current situation and future prospects. * ''Defector Survey'': asking various North Korean defectors about daily life inside North Korea and their opinions on subjects such as tourism in North Korea, foreign aid and the things that defectors miss most after leaving. In 2015, NK News held a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

fundraising drive to pay to send an investigative journalist to the

China–North Korea border The China–North Korea border is an Border, international border separating China and North Korea, extending from Korea Bay in the west to a China–North Korea–Russia tripoint, tripoint with Russia in the east. The total length of the borde ...

. The reporter is expected to provide regular dispatches from the region over the coming months.

Subscription

NK News' sister platform, NK Pro, goes beyond the function of a news outlet and also provides subscription-based data analysis tools designed for use by experts and analysts in public and private sector research and analysis postings. These tools include the North Korea Leadership Tracker, the North Korea Ship Tracker, the North Korea Aviation Tracker, Leading Indicators, and

KCNA The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) () is the state news agency of North Korea. The agency portrays the views of the North Korean government for both domestic and foreign consumption. It was established on December 5, 1946, and now features o ...

Watch. Free of charge, KCNA Watch allows users to watch both archives and live streams of

Korean Central Television Korean Central Television (KCTV; ) is a North Korean television service operated by the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee, a state-owned broadcaster in North Korea. It is broadcast terrestrially via the Pyongyang TV Tower in Moranbong-g ...

Media coverage

NK News gained international headlines in November 2012 for its "North Korean Leadership Tracker," which presents a graphic visualization of every event

Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il (born Yuri Kim; 16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader of North Korea from Death and state funeral of Kim Il Sung, the de ...

and his son

Kim Jong Un Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim ...

have attended since 1994. The following year, NK News was credited with breaking news of a purported North Korean "strike plan" against U.S. targets, based on analysis of a photo published by North Korean media, and the site was subsequently named by

KTXL KTXL (channel 40) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on Fruitridge Road near the Oak Park district on the so ...

news anchor Paul Robins as his "pick of the day." Other scoops include the identification of Kim Jong Un's US$7 million yacht and images proving the date of the 2014 Pyongyang apartment collapse. NK News stories have been cited by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'', ''

Österreich Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

'', ''

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

'', and others. Since 2014, NK News also operates a content syndication agreement with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', with various articles being published on ''The Guardian'' NK website.

Controversies

In early 2014, NK News was partially blocked by the government of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, ostensibly for violating the nation's National Security Law, a censorship regulation that prohibits some reports originating from North Korea. In November 2014, NK News published a series of accusations by the former

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

stringer

Nate Thayer Nathaniel Talbott Thayer (April 21, 1960 – ) was an American freelance journalist whose work focused on international organized crime, narcotics trafficking, human rights, and areas of military conflict. He is most notable for having intervi ...

, suggesting that the AP bureau in Pyongyang had signed secret agreements with the North Korean government that compromised its journalistic independence and integrity. AP denied the reports, and said that Thayer was merely a disgruntled former employee. NK News has been accused of being a front for the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

by members of the

Korean Friendship Association The Korean Friendship Association (KFA, ; ) is a Spain-based friendship association with North Korea. The KFA was established in November 2000. It operates in 120 countries and has an Official Delegate in 34 countries. Its president, Spanish cit ...

, which is a Spain-based friendship association with North Korea. KCNA Watch, a sister site of NK News, has been criticized for providing incomplete archives of North Korean websites in comparison to those of the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

and

web caches A web cache (or HTTP cache) is a system for optimizing the World Wide Web. It is implemented both client-side and server-side. The caching of multimedia and other files can result in less overall delay when browsing the Web. Parts of the system ...

of various

search engines Search engines, including web search engines, selection-based search engines, metasearch engines, desktop search tools, and web portals and vertical market websites have a search facility for online databases. By content/topic Gene ...

. In March 2025, North Korean state media accused NK News and its sister sites of claimed copyright infringement of websites run by North Korea and

Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan,
" ''

Journalists

Japanese journalist

Kosuke Takahashi is a Japanese journalist. He contributes to IHS Jane's Defence, NK News, and Toyo Keizai Online among other media by writing in both English and Japanese. He is also currently a regular TV commentator of Tokyo MX's Morning Cross program. Taka ...

is a contributor to the site. Alek Sigley, an Australian national who was a graduate student of Korean literature at

Kim Il Sung University Kim Il Sung University () is a public university in Taesong, Pyongyang, North Korea. It was founded on 1 October 1946 and was the first tertiary education institution established in post-war North Korea. The 15-hectare campus, along with the m ...

, contributed articles about daily life in

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

. In June 2019, Sigley was detained and deported after being accused of espionage. The following year, he would go on to deny these charges and claimed that his confession was coerced.

References

External links

* {{Media specialized on news and/or analysis about North Korea American news websites Internet properties established in 2011 Organizations specializing in North Korean issues North Korean studies