“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 forest fires in North Korea.

Soo-ah — a former Workers’ Party propagandist who grew up near Mount Paektu and defected in 2015 — writes about her experience being mobilized to extinguish forest fires and the differences she’s observed in how South and North Korea deal with these disasters.