William Blaine Richardson III was an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was also the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, a U.S. congressman, chair of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and chair of the Democratic Governors Association.
Chŏngjin is the capital of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province (함경북도) and the country's third-largest city. It is sometimes called the City of Iron.
The human rights record of North Korea is often considered to be among the worst in the world and has been globally condemned, with the United Nations and groups such as Human Rights Watch having condemned it. Amnesty International considers North Korea to have no contemporary parallel with respect to violations of liberty.
Tourism in North Korea is tightly controlled by the North Korean government. All tourism is organized by one of several state-owned tourism bureaus, including Korea International Travel Company (KITC), Korean International Sports Travel company (KISTC), Korean International Taekwondo Tourism Company (KITTC) and Korean International Youth Travel Company (KIYTC). The majority of tourists are Chinese nationals: one 2019 estimate indicated that up to 120,000 Chinese tourists had visited North Korea in the previous year, compared to fewer than 5,000 from Western countries.
Son Jong-nam was a North Korean defector and Christian missionary, who died in a Pyongyang prison after being arrested in 2006.
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea is a 2009 nonfiction book by Los Angeles Times journalist Barbara Demick, based on interviews with North Korean refugees from the city of Chongjin who had escaped North Korea. In 2010, the book was awarded the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. It was also a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Award in 2010.
Saeed Abedini is an Iranian American Christian pastor who was imprisoned in Iran in 2012 based on allegations that he compromised national security. During his imprisonment, Abedini became internationally known as a victim of religious persecution. Following international pressure, along with other American prisoners, Abedini was released from prison on 16 January 2016.
Kenneth Bae is a South Korean-born American Evangelical Christian missionary. Convicted by North Korea on charges of planning to overthrow the government, he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in April 2013. Bae was released on November 8, 2014, along with fellow American Matthew Todd Miller.
Crime is present in various forms in North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Merrill Edward Newman was a businessman and former United States Army officer. In 2013, he was arrested in North Korea and released 42 days later.
Jason Rezaian is an Iranian-American journalist who served as Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post. He was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial in Iran in 2015.
The Dai Hong Dan incident took place on 29 October 2007, when the North Korean cargo vessel in the Indian Ocean MV Dai Hong Dan (대홍단호) was attacked and temporarily seized by Somali pirates off Somalia. The following day, the crew of the vessel overpowered the pirates with the support of a US naval vessel.
Matthew Todd Miller is a U.S. citizen who was detained in North Korea (DPRK) after traveling there, tearing up his tourist visa, and requesting political asylum. He refused to be sent back, intending to get arrested to "have a face-to-face with North Koreans to answer [his] personal questions".
The following lists events that happened in 2014 in North Korea.
After the Korean War, 333 South Korean people detained in North Korea as prisoners of war chose to stay in North Korea. During subsequent decades of the Cold War, some people of South Korean origin defected to North Korea as well. They include Roy Chung, a former U.S. Army soldier who defected to North Korea through East Germany in 1979. Aside from defection, North Korea has been accused of abduction in the disappearances of some South Koreans.
Kim Dong Chul is a Korean-American businessman who was imprisoned by the government of North Korea (DPRK) in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for espionage. Following his release, Kim has admitted to working with the South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency.
Otto Frederick Warmbier was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died soon after his parents requested his feeding tube be removed.
Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, is a Korean-American professor who was detained in North Korea for 382 days. On May 9, 2018, it was reported that Kim was released from custody.
The persecution of Christians in North Korea is an ongoing and systematic human rights violation in North Korea. According to multiple resolutions which have been passed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the North Korean government considers religious activities political crimes, because they could challenge the personality cult of Kim Il Sung and his family. The Workers' Party of Korea also considers religion a tool of American imperialism and the North Korean state uses this argument to justify its activities.
North Korea