This article is written by Thomas Schäfer, the German Ambassador to North Korea from 2007 to 2010 and again from 2013 to 2018. Schäfer just published the book “From Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un: How the Hardliners Prevailed. On the Political History of North Korea (2007-2020).”

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the small community of resident foreigners in North Korea has dwindled even further. Few foreign eyes and ears are left to witness what is really going on in the country.  Now seems like a good time to take stock of the value of in-person