It’s no secret that the pandemic has made it much harder to get information out of North Korea. Journalists have fewer sources, travel to the DPRK is prohibited and the number of refugees arriving in South Korea is at all-time lows.

With that in mind, several members of the NK News team set out in June to the remote South Korean island of Baengnyeong, located a stone’s throw from the North Korean coastline and less than 100 miles from Pyongyang.