My work at NK News Pro

New products and price points! Sign up here!

I joined the NK News service as a reader and as a regular contributor. From May 1, 2013 most of my original work will appear there.

North Korean Economy Watch will continue to be updated with generally available public information so it will continue to serve as a useful resource to journalists, academics, policy makers, and the NGO community.

All of my contributions can be found here, but below are links to individual posts:

20. East Pyongyang’s new shopping mall.

19. Satellite imagery reveals major urban development in Rason.

18. Identifying the Ibiza of North Korea: Where Kim Jong-un met Rodman.

17. Three new railway updates.

16. Kim Jong-un holds guidance meeting at Kangdong compound.

15. North Korea’s Supreme Court: Where Americans go for sentencing.

14. DPRK expands tourist access to Kalma Penninsula (related story here)

13. First live picture of Kim Jong-un tweeted at new KPA cemetery in Pyongyang

12. Rason Trade Fair 2013

11. New Central Bank Headquarters in Pyongyang.

10. Wonsan International Airport. Follow-up here.

9. Contributed to James Pearson’s piece on Kim Jong Un’s yacht

8. North Korea’s ‘Torure’ rail transport system

7. Kim Jong-un’s east coast guidance trips

6. New Yalu/Amnok River bridge

5. DPRK’s ski destinations

4. New residential construction in Chongjin. Follow story up here

3. DPRK’s Turf Institute

2. DPRK propaganda changes

1. DPRK’s drone testing site

This entry was posted on Friday, January 17th, 2014 at 11:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

GregorSamsa

I wonder if (or when) readers will be subjected to a fee that would enable access to this “premium” service…
NKeconWatch

Yes, there is a fee. We have to eat too!
- Piglet
  
  Sure, but the 1000 dollar/year fee is extremely unrealistic. You should provide with a tiered subscription system. Keep the “pro” subscription at $1000 but please create a “light” subscription (around $100/year would be much more reasonable) with more limited access (no additional statistics, a selection of the best articles on a time-limited basis, etc.)
- Edgar
  
  What do you eat? Lobster caviar every day? The fee is way too much. Have fun there… hope you can afford something to eat now.
Matt

Congratulations! As a non-professional who follows North Korea, I am disappointed because I will probably not be able to pay for content, so this makes finding information more difficult for me. However, it seems like this site might help academics access information more easily because it is in one spot.
NKObserver

Any idea what an individual membership will cost? I’ve emailed NKNews and gotten no response.
asb

As some other users have commented, congratulations on the new site, but I am not sure that I can justify another paying for a paywall at this time. Truly a shame, as this site has fostered a great interest in NK as well as pointed me in the direction of countless nformation, website, books, and more.

Best of luck
Ali

I loved this blog,but understand that you need to eat too. Good luck on the new venture
Fuersty

Congratulations! I’d be willing to pay for a subscription, but hopefully you angle a offering for the self-education/hobbyist market. I happen to be an computer programmer with an avocation on DPRK Economics.
I know a lot of businesses may cheapen out and choose the cheaper level inappropriately, so I understand if you don’t roll something out.

If all else fails, is there a possibly for a delayed release here on the free site? Maybe 3 months after? Honestly the sources seem disparate enough that I’d be willing to deal with the delay as opposed to attempting to find/follow and aggregate myself.
IK

I deeply respect that step, but expecting hobbyists (who propably make up the majority of the readers here) to pay 1000 $ a year is, well optimistic. Even 10% of that sum would result in panmunjom-like negotiations with my wife 🙁
brian c

I’m pleased you’re moving on and out. I don’t dispute that you have to also make money, but $1000 for a casual reader is really too much. $100 and I’d be in since I think your information and insight is fantastic. I suspect most of your readers are like me: not an investor, academic, human rights activist with a true need for this information.

It’s a “nice to have” but I can live without it.
Gregor Samsa

Good luck with this new venture. However, I find the rate of 1000 USD a year is astronomic and will not subscribe.

Shouldn’t you guys try to make money from your expertise where the money actually is … ? For instance as consultants for universities, private ventures intending to do business with DPRK, intergovernmental organizations., NGOs,…
Neil Robinson

A sad day indeed.
crosspatch

If I were a news professional or had business interests in that part of the world, I could justify paying the fee at nkpro but as a citizen with an interest of keeping up with events in the region on a casual basis, the cost is too steep.

A compromise might be a public site that publishes content from the pro site after some period of time where your pro subscribers have had exclusive access to the material, say a month or so.
John

Terrible news, NKNews is a terrible organization. They’re basically a pile of slandering ignorants. You’re much better than that.
hannouchka

It’s all about the money, obviously. I won’t be paying up to hear the US propaganda line. The DPRK propaganda on KCNA is free….
Ctigmata

Thank your for your blog, it was great ! Keep up the good work !

Regarding NKnews PRO – all the articles there are closed now to all those who are not subscribed. There is nothing to read there no and, I think, that not many can even subscribe cause of the cost. 1000 for a year is crazy. Most of the articles wont even get the amount of readers the article deserves !
humanitybesideus.net

This is unfortunate. I certainly understand the rationale and I respect the desire (and need) to make a living and be compensated for great work.

The problem with this approach, which takes some of the web’s best content and moves it to a subscription service that is completely unaffordable by the masses (and by students and “hobbyists,”) is that it further diminishes the amount of publicly available quality data, analysis and reports on the DPRK, giving the mainstream media and their often poorly researched, sensationalistic reporting potentially more weight and presence. It will be a sad day when an Internet search on the DPRK only returns CNN’s simplistic analysis and the 10 or so pictures that they’ve been feeding us continually over six months.

Good luck, though, I sincerely wish you success.
IK

I dont’ know how many people actually went for the 1000 $ offer, but how about allowing the purchase of individual reports/pieces? A few hundred readers paying let’s say 3 $ each regularly is worth considering, I think.
NKeconWatch

I think they are working on that…
adam

Really sad for alot of us who are not academic or are in the press to put a bunch of information behind a paywall that is so high, people that have a willing interest are now missing out.
Acmilan99

Yeah, and now I can’t red any of your articles since its now a paid service. THANKS A LOT!! I have deleted your address from my favorites.