Dating had never been easy for Kim Jeong-soon. It was with a certain reservation, then, that she went on a blind date with a South Korean man three years ago; Kim Jong-il — whose name in the south is pronounced slightly differently to the late North Korean dictator. They dined on fried chicken and beer and launched right into conversations about marriage, divorce and what a future together might look like. Six months after that first date they were married.

This article also marks the launch of a new 38 North series: one that will focus on cultivating the work of young North Korea watchers. This interview was conducted and translated by Janice Lee, a researcher at the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, and Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, a Swedish economics and political science student at Stockholm University, and workshopped with 38 North editors and experts. We welcome these new voices to 38 North, and look forward to hearing from more up and coming analysts and scholars. Researchers, diplomats, tourists, and defectors have all spoken of gradual changes in recent years to the complicated role women play in North Korean society.

Help us continue to fight human rights abuses. Please give now to support our work. Requests for details on the incidence of violence against women, and sexual assault and rape, were met with indignant refusals. At times it appeared the delegation had been told which answers to give and to repeat if necessary.