“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews 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 burglaries and what motivated some North Koreans to steal in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Nano, a pseudonym for a North Korean defector who lived there until 2010, recalls being a victim of theft and how those experiences shaped her views of the culprits.

Recently, I sat stunned