Knowledge is your greatest advantage

Use NK PRO to inform decision-making and better help the communities you're working hard to serve.

Stay ahead of the curve on all things North Korea

Our NK Pro Member Briefings and Push Alerts keep you abreast of the latest news, analysis, events and conferences around the world.

As a non-governmental organization, your principal goal is to improve the well-being of vulnerable communities of North Korean citizens. 

Whether you’re working on the ground to provide humanitarian aid under a complex sanctions regime or collecting data on the country’s human rights situation, you need accurate insight to catalyze your mission.

Stay one step ahead

Maximize your NGO's North Korea impact

Expand your primary sources

Improved sanctions compliance

When it comes to identifying mission priorities relating to North Korea, understanding what's going on inside the country is essential if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

In this regard, NK PRO offers NGO practitioners and activists access to a wide range of primary source materials from inside the DPRK, such as on-the-ground photos, datasets from in-country sources, and regular visitor reports.

In combination with regular satellite imagery analysis and reporting on granular developments of notable interest, these indicators can provide leads for new project goals, material to validate ongoing research, or actionable ideas for investigative purposes.

Often the first to break North Korea-related news – and with a strong track record for accuracy – NK PRO and NK News are essential reads for anyone working on the DPRK portfolio. 

And when breaking news occurs, you can count on your membership to better make sense of developments. With a team of highly specialized geopolitical, military and geospatial analysts, NK PRO can keep you informed of events as they happen.

With the North Korea sanctions regime having significantly expanded in recent years, the risks for NGOs of being implicated in even unwitting breaches has grown. In this regard, NK PRO offers precise and actionable insights relating to areas of sanctions risk in a number of ways. 

Tools like the NK Company Database and NK Marine Tracker provide practitioners in the NGO field a means to conduct enhanced due diligence on partners, vendors, and in-country providers at the click of a button.

Secondly, specialist journalists regularly publish reports on sanctions exemptions developments likely to be of interest for those working in the humanitarian sector.

Inquire about access today

How can NK PRO help?

Inquire about access today

Here’s what NGO practitioners and activists find most helpful:

Don’t just take our word for it

Here’s what members of the federal community find most helpful for their daily operations:

Don’t just take our word for it. See what our existing users in news and media think.

When you have too much information and when information is conflicting, the ground truth is the deciding factor. NK Pro provides its subscribers with that ground truth. I have referred to NK Pro for its unique services in search of the ground truth concerning North Korea and Northeast Asian security, economics and social issues.”

LTG Chun In-bum, former deputy commander for the First ROK Army

The Panel found that being able to have access to NK News’s regular reporting, its specialized offerings and its staff added greatly to our effectiveness. They were all models of clarity, independence and probity, and helped us by often providing context and corroboration for our own information.”

Martin Uden, former Coordinator of the UN Panel on Sanctions against the DPRK

“As someone who has followed and assessed developments in North Korea for many years I can not recollect a time in the past few decades when interest was higher. News coverage has expanded exponentially but quantity is no substitute for quality. I have found NK Pro to be the best source for keeping me current on events as well as in assisting my research on economic and sanctions matters. I recommend it highly.”

William J Newcomb, former member of the UN Panel of Experts on DPRK Sanctions

“My day starts, along with multiple cups of coffee, by reading the NYTimes and Wall Street Journal in old-fashioned hard copy, and the Washington Post online. By the time I'm finished with WaPo, NK News is waiting in my inbox, and I'm ready to hone in on Korea related affairs. The stories by NKNews' own reporters cover a lot of territory, as do the daily excerpts from the wire services. I avidly await the commentary by Professors Lankov and more recently Haggard. The longish Q&As with multiple experts, provide an easy and quick range of viewpoint and opinion on the most important events as they happen. And the historical glimpses are often interesting side-bars. If NK Pro wasn't so expensive, I'd read that too. NKNews gives me thebackground news and overviews I need in order to focus in closely on NK's human rights situation in my own research and writing, And NK News provides the context of happenings in, on and regarding the Korean peninsula that are invaluable for our advocacy to put human rights issues on to the agenda and into the mix with all the other aspects of the NK conundrum."

David Hawk, Prominent human rights researcher and advocate. Author, The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps -- Prisoner's Testimonies and Satellite Photographs

See what colleagues in the not-for-profit sector think about NK PRO:

Inquire about access today

Randall Spadoni

DPRK Program Director, World Vision

"NK PRO gives us both the real-time updates and the in-depth analysis we need to provide effective humanitarian assistance in North Korea. 

Our operating environment is constantly changing, and we need to make quick adjustments based on timely, accurate information. NK PRO provides us tools to analyze and act. There’s no better resource out there."

"NK PRO gives us both the real-time updates and the in-depth analysis we need to provide effective humanitarian assistance in North Korea. 

Our operating environment is constantly changing, and we need to make quick adjustments based on timely, accurate information. NK PRO provides us tools to analyze and act. There’s no better resource out there."

DPRK Program Director, World Vision

Randall Spadoni

David Hawk

Prominent human rights researcher and advocate

"NK News gives me the background news and overviews I need in order to focus in closely on NK's human rights situation in my own research and writing.

And 
NK News provides the context of happenings in, on and regarding the Korean peninsula that are invaluable for our advocacy to put human rights issues on to the agenda and into the mix with all the other aspects of the NK conundrum."

"NK News gives me the background news and overviews I need in order to focus in closely on NK's human rights situation in my own research and writing.

And 
NK News provides the context of happenings in, on and regarding the Korean peninsula that are invaluable for our advocacy to put human rights issues on to the agenda and into the mix with all the other aspects of the NK conundrum."

Prominent human rights researcher and advocate

David Hawk

Thomas Fisler

Former DPRK Director, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

"NK PRO has been able to provide me an insight with in-depth, accurate quality information beyond my scope and made me to follow up certain thematic topics which otherwise I would not have been able to follow up and gain a profound view while being resident in the DPRK."

"NK PRO has been able to provide me an insight with in-depth, accurate quality information beyond my scope and made me to follow up certain thematic topics which otherwise I would not have been able to follow up and gain a profound view while being resident in the DPRK."

Former DPRK Director, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Thomas Fisler

Keith Luse

Executive Director, NCNK

"NK PRO is an essential component of my information base regarding North Korea. 

The volume of topics and depth of coverage is remarkable.”

"NK PRO is an essential component of my information base regarding North Korea. 

The volume of topics and depth of coverage is remarkable.”

Executive Director, NCNK

Keith Luse

  • Tracks the public appearance of senior North Korean elites alongside either Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il or Kim Il Sung since 1994
  • Detect changes in economic priorities and policy changes
  • Access individual biographies of nearly 500 elites
  • Map out visits.

Tracking elite appearances can provide useful clues about North Korean policy and the positioning of senior figures within the regime.

How our clients use it:

Gov / Military: Gain rapid-fire access to leaders’ biographies and historical data to guide internal briefings prior to meetings with DPRK officials. This includes leaders’ resumes, developments in their career and rank.

Corporate Sector: Both in terms of identifying key economic officials, emerging economic areas of priority.

Academia: Research on changing priorities and trends in leadership.

News and media: Understand changes in leadership after a major reshuffle and cross reference data to verify possible purges. Quickly identify information about key figures and who they meet.

NGOs: Gain rapid-fire access to leaders’ biographies and historical data to guide internal briefings prior to meetings with DPRK officials.

NK PRO is dedicated to getting professionals the exact information they need to make decisions related to North Korea as quickly and confidently as possible. 

Building on the strong newsgathering reputation of NK News, we fuse decades of overall staff experience with cutting-edge technologies to provide NK PRO subscribers the very best knowledge and tools to achieve their North Korea-related goals. 

At our core is a team of journalists and analysts who focus exclusively on North Korea, from a wide range of specialist backgrounds. Able to spot the nuances which can have the biggest impact, we build on their insights with custom-designed tools to save time, connect the dots, and provide you first access to play-by-play developments. 

In a world where qualified and objective understanding of North Korea is hard to come by, NK PRO provides an unrivaled foundation for professionals to solve complex problems and identify meaningful new opportunities.

Whether you need insights into the latest leadership reshuffle, on policy changes emerging from a New Year’s speech, or the implications of the latest U.S.-DPRK summit meeting, you will always find it in NK PRO analysis.

We’re event-driven: You can expect rapid-fire and in-depth analysis on breaking news events such as summits, weapons tests, bombshell reports and statements quicker than our competitors to keep you well-prepared for your next briefing. 

We’re trend-driven: Our proactive analysts also read between the lines to identify new trends and issues of importance. We flag these for you, as and when they emerge, across a diverse range of issues.

With NK PRO News, We bring together the latest developments in the political, business, legal and infrastructure sectors, written by leading journalists in the North Korea field. We specialize in primary source-driven news and analysis, relying heavily on informed sources, data forex, and satellite imagery.

PRO Analysis & News

About NK PRO

Inquire about access today

About NK PRO

PRO Analysis & News

NK PRO is dedicated to getting professionals the exact information they need to make decisions related to North Korea as quickly and confidently as possible. 

Building on the strong newsgathering reputation of NK News, we fuse decades of overall staff experience with cutting-edge technologies to provide NK PRO subscribers the very best knowledge and tools to achieve their North Korea-related goals. 

At our core is a team of journalists and analysts who focus exclusively on North Korea, from a wide range of specialist backgrounds. Able to spot the nuances which can have the biggest impact, we build on their insights with custom-designed tools to save time, connect the dots, and provide you first access to play-by-play developments. 

In a world where qualified and objective understanding of North Korea is hard to come by, NK PRO provides an unrivaled foundation for professionals to solve complex problems and identify meaningful new opportunities.

Whether you need insights into the latest leadership reshuffle, on policy changes emerging from a New Year’s speech, or the implications of the latest U.S.-DPRK summit meeting, you will always find it in NK PRO analysis.

We’re event-driven: You can expect rapid-fire and in-depth analysis on breaking news events such as summits, weapons tests, bombshell reports and statements quicker than our competitors to keep you well-prepared for your next briefing. 

We’re trend-driven: Our proactive analysts also read between the lines to identify new trends and issues of importance. We flag these for you, as and when they emerge, across a diverse range of issues.

With NK PRO News, We bring together the latest developments in the political, business, legal and infrastructure sectors, written by leading journalists in the North Korea field. We specialize in primary source-driven news and analysis, relying heavily on informed sources, data forex, and satellite imagery.

Don’t just take our word for it

See what colleagues in the not-for-profit sector think about NK PRO:

Here’s what NGO practitioners and activists find most helpful:

How can NK PRO help?

As a non-governmental organization, your principal goal is to improve the well-being of vulnerable communities of North Korean citizens. 

Whether you’re working on the ground to provide humanitarian aid under a complex sanctions regime or collecting data on the country’s human rights situation, you need accurate insight to catalyze your mission.

With the North Korea sanctions regime having significantly expanded in recent years, the risks for NGOs of being implicated in even unwitting breaches has grown. In this regard, NK PRO offers precise and actionable insights relating to areas of sanctions risk in a number of ways. 

Tools like the NK Company Database and NK Ship Tracker provide practitioners in the NGO field a means to conduct enhanced due diligence on partners, vendors, and in-country providers at the click of a button.

Secondly, specialist journalists regularly publish reports on sanctions exemptions developments likely to be of interest for those working in the humanitarian sector.

Often the first to break North Korea-related news – and with a strong track record for accuracy – NK PRO and NK News are essential reads for anyone working on the DPRK portfolio. 

And when breaking news occurs, you can count on your membership to better make sense of developments. With a team of highly specialized geopolitical, military and geospatial analysts, NK PRO can keep you informed of events as they happen.

When it comes to identifying mission priorities relating to North Korea, understanding what's going on inside the country is essential if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

In this regard, NK PRO offers NGO practitioners and activists access to a wide range of primary source materials from inside the DPRK, such as on-the-ground photos, datasets from in-country sources, and regular visitor reports.

In combination with regular satellite imagery analysis and reporting on granular developments of notable interest, these indicators can provide leads for new project goals, material to validate ongoing research, or actionable ideas for investigative purposes.

Expand your primary sources

Maximise your NGO's North Korea impact

Improved sanctions compliance

Stay one step ahead

Knowledge is your greatest 
advantage

Use NK PRO to inform decision-making and better help the communities you're working hard to serve.

PRODUCT TOUR:

OVERVIEWKCNA WATCHALERTS

Use Cases

Research Tools

Databases

© 2019, Korea Risk Group (NK Consulting Inc.). All Rights Reserved

Other features

About

Use Cases

Research Tools

Databases

Other features

About

The Aviation Tracker

The Aviation Tracker tracks commercial flights to, from, and within North Korea.

The world’s only North Korea-specific tool for observing flights going into and out of the DPRK.

Track commercial flights to, from, and within North Korea.

The Aviation Tracker is designed to help you measure the North’s economic activities--especially the transportation of sanctioned materials--as well as understand shifting trends in tourism, and visualize North Korea’s diplomatic relations.

Using radio technology, visual sightings and other open sources, the NK Pro Aviation Tracker provides comprehensive information on the movement of aircraft to, from and within North Korea. Based on historical data going back to 1970, our flight data comes from a unique combination of three sources aggregated in a way not used anywhere else.

Some examples of how you can use the tracker:

  • Kim Jong Un’s bodyguards arrive in Hanoi on Air Koryo IL-76 cargo plane
  • In unusual move, five Air Koryo planes head to Vladivostok on Monday
  • U.S.A.F. cargo plane left Pyongyang on Saturday morning, flight purpose unknown
  • Amid increased sanctions, Air Koryo flights decreased by 22% in 2017: data
  • Orascom private jet pays unreported trip to North Korea

Former deputy commander for the First ROK Army

Historian, Kookmin University

North Korea Specialist & Anchor, YTN

Long-time NK News Contributor

Political Economist, UCSD

Jane's Defense, Tokyo

Korea Risk Group offers a combination of unique staff perspectives and skillsets to understand the DPRK in a simply unrivaled manner. 

Staff include:
Andrei Lankov, Director
 
Andrei Lankov writes exclusively for NK News and NK PRO as one of the world's leading authorities on North Korea. A graduate of Leningrad State University, he attended Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University from 1984-5. 
Alannah Hill, Deputy Managing Editor
 
Alannah Hill works as Deputy Managing Editor at Korea Risk Group, where she puts the final touches on content across NK PRO, KOREA PRO and NK News.
Bryan Betts, Managing Editor
 
Bryan Betts is the Managing Editor of NK News. He has covered the Koreas for Yonhap News Agency, The Diplomat and Korea Exposé and previously worked as a newspaper reporter in South Carolina and New Mexico.
Chad O'Carroll, Founder & CEO
 
O'Carroll founded NK News, the genesis for NK PRO, in 2010 after visiting the DPRK as a tourist. Having worked at the UN, think tanks in Washington, DC, and written for multiple newspapers, Chad specializes in both writing news and analysis.
Colin Zwirko, Senior Analytic Correspondent
 
Zwirko is a Seoul-based correspondent who focuses on a range of subjects including diplomatic affairs, DPRK infrastructure, and trade issues. Furthermore, he is a satellite imagery specialist and produces regular work in this area. 
Jeongmin Kim, Lead Correspondent
 
Jeongmin Kim is a lead correspondent at NK News, based in Seoul. She previously worked for the CSIS Korea Chair and in the Seoul bureau of Reuters news agency. Follow her on Twitter @jeongminnkim
Kylie Pak, Project Officer
 
Kylie Pak is a project officer at NK News, based in Seoul. She previously worked for the Sejong Institute. Her graduate research focuses on U.S.-DPRK diplomatic relations.
Nils Weisensee, Chief Product Officer
 
Nils brings together years of journalism experience with major international media, a North Korea skillset cultivated through an operations role with the Choson Exchange NGO, and business-smarts from his startup activities in Shanghai.
Peter Ward, Contributing Analyst
 
Ward is one of the world's leading specialists on DPRK economic, agricultural and legislative issues. As a fluent Korean speaker who has visited the DPRK several times, Ward's niche-focus analysis is unmatched in the open-source.
Seung-Yeon Chung, State Media Specialist
 

Seung-Yeon Chung is a state media specialist at NK News. She previously worked in the Department of Unification and Foreign Ministry at Korean Broadcast System (KBS).

Regular contributors include:
Chun In-Bum
Fyodor Tertitskiy
Wang Son-taek
Kosuke Takahashi
Stephan Haggard
Tatiana Gabroussenko

Meet our staff writers and contributors

Shreyas Reddy, Seoul Correspondent
 

Shreyas Reddy is a correspondent at NK News, based in Seoul. He previously worked as a researcher at BBC Monitoring, where his work focused on news and key people and organizations from the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Follow him on Twitter @shreyas_k_reddy.