“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews with and columns by North Korean defectors, most of whom left the DPRK within the last few years.

Readers may submit their questions for defectors by emailing [email protected] and including their first name and city of residence.

Today’s question is about how North Koreans navigate friendships.

Rose — who was born and raised in North Korea and lived there until she defected in 2019 — writes about her struggles to make friends in the cutthroat world of high school, the importance of secrecy in a system lubricated by bribes