A collage of Kim Jong Un wearing a mask and houses in a North Korean village | Images: KCTV (May 12, 2022) and Eric Lafforgue (May 2010), edited by NK News
Editor’s note: What If? is an NK News series that provides readers with thoughtful, informed speculation about North Korea’s future. Articles in this series draw on verified facts and rigorous analysis to explore hypothetical scenarios in the years and decades ahead.
It's a sweltering June morning at the North Korean border in 2028. Birds chatter, trees rustle in the wind. And across the Yalu River, Chinese tourists peer into a country that they still cannot visit, a place caught in a time warp due to its extended self-isolation from the world.
Editor’s note: What If? is an NK News series that provides readers with thoughtful, informed speculation about North Korea’s future. Articles in this series draw on verified facts and rigorous analysis to explore hypothetical scenarios in the years and decades ahead.
It's a sweltering June morning at the North Korean border in 2028. Birds chatter, trees rustle in the wind. And across the Yalu River, Chinese tourists peer into a country that they still cannot visit, a place caught in a time warp due to its extended self-isolation from the world.
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Chad O'Carroll is the founder of NK News/NK Pro and related holding company Korea Risk Group. In addition to being the group's CEO, O'Carroll is a frequent writer and commentator about the Koreas, having written about the two nations since 2010. He has visited the DPRK multiple times, worked and lived in Washington, D.C. with a focus on peninsula issues, and lived in the ROK since 2016.