North Korea’s weapons programs are built on the backs of its people: forced labor, stolen resources, and a system that feeds the military while families go hungry. HRF calls on the international community to confront both the regime’s military threats and its human rights abuses.

North Korea plans to deploy new long-range artillery near the inter-Korean border this year, sharpening its threat to Seoul and the roughly 26 million people in the surrounding capital region.

The regime’s artillery buildup threatens South Korea, but also exposes Pyongyang’s core logic: more weapons, more fear, more control — and never dignity or freedom for the North Korean people.

HRF remains committed to exposing the Kim dictatorship and supporting a future where all North Koreans can live in freedom.