Understand North Korea. Help free its people.
The map, the military picture, the history and the groups doing the work, plus clear things you can do today. The regime survives on keeping its people in the dark and everyone else uninterested. This site is for fixing both.
17 camps and weapons sites watched from spaceNewest image: Camp 14, Kaechon, 11 Oct 2026
- Prison camps 24
- Nuclear 4
- Missile & space 14
- Regime 3
- Border & crossings 5
- Economy 4
- 24 prison camps and prisons mapped
- 360 missile launches since 1984
- 17 sites watched from space
- 26 organizations doing the work
- 67 books, films and reports
- English, 한국어, 日本語, 中文
Do something in the next 10 minutes
All the ways to help
FreeMail your old USB drivesThey get wiped, loaded with films and news, and smuggled into North Korea. 140,000+ so far.Flash Drives for Freedom 
$3,000 = one personFund a rescueLiberty in North Korea has brought 1,400+ people from China to safety. Any amount counts toward the next one.Donate to LiNK ContextKnow what changed in 2025Radio Free Asia’s Korean service closed and many groups lost funding. The pipeline into the country is at its weakest in years.Read the explainer The scale of it
80–120kpeople held in political prison campsUN inquiry, 2014. Still the most-cited estimate
- 26M
- people living under the Kim regime UN estimate
- 224
- escapees reached South Korea in 2025 Unification Ministry
- ~60
- assembled nuclear warheads SIPRI, Jan 2026
- 360
- missile and space launches since 1984 CNS missile test database
Explore
PeopleThe Kim family tree and the officials who run the country, with sources and sanctions.- Missile testsAll 360 missile and space launches since 1984, with flight paths.
- MilitaryNukes, missiles, artillery, cyber theft, and the war in Ukraine.
OrganizationsWho is doing the work in 2026 and how to help each one.
LibraryEscapee memoirs, documentaries, UN reports and open data.
Questions people ask
All explainers
How can North Korea be freed?Five ways the regime could end or open up, roughly how likely each one is, and which ones normal people can actually push on.8 min read
Is it possible to free North Korea?Why the regime has lasted since 1948, the cracks that are already there, and what history says about "permanent" dictatorships.6 min read
How to help North Korean peopleConcrete things that work, with costs. Rescues, USB drives, tutoring escapees, documentation, and pressure on governments.6 min read
How North Koreans escapeThe river crossing, hiding in China, the 3,000-mile route to Southeast Asia, and why only 224 people made it in 2025.6 min read
Why China sends North Koreans backAt least 1,076 people sent back since 2020: why China returns North Koreans, and what waits for them at home.7 min read© Esri, MaxarNorth Korea's prison campsThe kwanliso system: where the camps are, why whole families end up inside, and what satellite imagery and survivors show.7 min read
Songbun: the caste system North Korea says does not existThree classes, 51 categories and a file on everyone from age 17: how family background decides a North Korean life.6 min read
Ten minutes is enough to start.
Mail a USB drive, fund a rescue, write to your representative. Every way to help, what it costs and who does the work.
Build this with us. Everything here is open source. If you can code, map, translate Korean or spot a wrong fact, you can help. Contribute on GitHub