This is the first of a two-part series examining recent research into life for women in North Korea.

Has Kim Jong Un empowered women in North Korea, or has his regime presided over and driven a worsening of conditions for women in the country?

This essay approaches this question via an assessment of three large and interview-rich reports on North Korean women which were published in 2018, focussing on gender dynamics as well as sexual violence.

When taken in aggregate and correlated with broader themes in North Korean society and recent scholarship on women in North Korean markets, the overall