2019 was a year of ups and downs for North Korea watchers, kicking off with Kim Jong Un’s new year’s promise to meet with President Trump again and the two leaders’ fateful summit in Hanoi in February.

12 months on and the diplomatic process has, for the time being, failed to bear fruit, and North Korea appears ready to unveil its new hard line position any day now.

In total, NK News published almost 1,300 news articles, investigations, analyses, and galleries on our NK News and NK Pro services in 2019.

So what grabbed our readers’ attentions this year? Among our most-read stories, of course, were Kim Jong Un’s now-famous scaling of Mount Paektu on horseback, sanctions compliance issues, and increasing signs that the North Korean government is taking steps to tighten internal control.

Also popular? The North Korean leader’s on-site scolding of top officials, the mystery disappearance of Pyongyang’s legendary traffic girls, and an op-ed exploring who could replace Kim Jong Un.

1. Pyongyang authorities block windows of hundreds of high-rise apartments – October 4

Our most widely-read story of the year was an astonishing exclusive obtained through on the ground on the ground sources: that authorities in the North Korean capital had physically blocked out the high-rise windows of what appear to be hundreds of apartments throughout the city. The move, believed to be intended to obscured view of the nearby ‘forbidden city,’ highlighted what appeared to be a growing trend towards “hyper-securitization” in the DPRK.

2. South Korea, breaching UN rules, failed to report oil shipments to North Korea – January 22

While 2018 saw inter-Korean ties improve in leaps and bounds, 2019 saw many of the more optimistic views of that reconciliation confront cold hard reality. Back in January, NK News was able to exclusively reveal that the South Korean government had breached UN sanctions and not reported a shipment of oil to the North.

3. North Korea’s iconic traffic ladies mostly disappear from Pyongyang streets – October 21

2019 also saw reports emerge suggesting that the North Korean capital was doing away with its iconic traffic ladies, long a mainstay of Pyongyang’s roads and intersections. The female traffic officers now appear to have been replaced at the vast majority of Pyongyang intersections by male traffic officials or, in some places, new sets of traffic lights, NK News learned.

4. In on-the-spot visit, Kim Jong Un slams military officials for mismanagement – November 18

On-site scoldings of top officials have become increasingly common in the Kim Jong Un era, likely part of efforts by the country’s leadership to play various political factions against eachother and assert ruling party discipline. 2019 was no exception, with NK News readers taking particular interest in the North Korean leader’s comments during a visit to the August 25 Fishery Station last month, in which he strongly criticized top officials from the country’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) for mismanaging ongoing construction at the site.

5. Swiss robotics appear at new North Korean factory in potential sanctions breach – November 19

Also in the spotlight this year was the issue of sanctions — and the increasingly cunning means North Korea has used to get around them. Always keen to keep a close eye on what’s getting into the DPRK, our team noticed that machinery from the Swiss manufacturer ABB was appearing in a DPRK factory. The company, of course, insisted it had no idea how its products got to North Korea.

6. Alek Sigley, detained in North Korea for over a week, now safe in Japan – July 3

The arrest and subsequent expulsion of Australian student Alek Sigley was one of the top North Korea stories of the year, highlighting the ever-thorny question of just how possible is it to engage with the DPRK. Our story on the news that Alek, who wrote a widely-read column for NK News, had been released and was safe and sound in Tokyo, was one of our top-read this year.

7. Kim Jong Un scales politically-symbolic Mount Paektu on horseback: state media – October 15

Kim Jong Un’s October decision to scale North Korea’s Mount Paektu was one of the most unusual and noteworthy North Korea stories to emerge this year, sparking endless memes and parodies. But beyond the jokes was a serious message, and hints from Pyongyang that a major new policy shift might be in the works.

8. North Korea celebrates Kim-Trump Panmunjom meeting with new commemorative stamp – August 2

2019 saw two extraordinary meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump take place, one in Hanoi and one at the truce village of Panmunjom. North Korea chose to commemorate the second event with a special commemorative stamp, highlighting just how much importance Pyongyang placed on the meeting — and just how disappointed it would be if it failed to bear fruit.

9. 33 North Koreans leave Nepal amid broader crackdown, report to UN says – November 15

But despite all the summitry between the U.S. and DPRK, the international sanctions regime remained very much in place in 2019. Amid a broader crackdown on DPRK-linked businesses and individuals, the Nepalese government reported last month that it had expelled 33 DPRK nationals — a sign that the longtime Pyongyang ally was finally beginning to take sanctions enforcement seriously.

10. Contingency planning: who would succeed Kim Jong Un? – March 14

Another of our top-read stories this year was a thought experiment by North Korea scholar Fyodor Tertitskiy: what would happen if Kim Jong Un died? The answer, it turns out, is complicated, and Tertitskiy concluded that the DPRK leader’s death could lead to a major power vacuum, though stability would likely prevail.

Honorable mentions: 

• “Make women more beautiful”: inside a North Korean fashion magazine
• Kim Jong Un visits frontline units, orders military to step-up “war-like” drills
• North Korea unveils newly-reconstructed “utopia” town in Samjiyon
• Brace yourselves: why North Korea is ready to turn up the tensions in 2020
• Man accused of Madrid embassy break-in is well known North Korea activist