Law and North Korea bridges the gap in legal expertise and information between the English- and Korean-speaking worlds. For the first time, up-to-date and complete translations of the laws of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are available for comparison with the laws of the Republic of Korea and other jurisdictions. These translations are accompanied by the one of the first widely-available North Korean-English glossaries in the world.

A translation project of this scale offers the chance for scholars to conduct contemporaneous legal research on two jurisdictions with a shared history, culture and language, but vastly different modern politics. It enables English-language studies in comparative law and conflict of laws with a view to expanding the scope of research that can be done in preparing for reunification, including memorialisation and accountability. Journalists, commentators and students have the opportunity to read and understand the content of the law for themselves. In an environment where little neutral information is available on the DPRK, Law and North Korea offers a strictly textual resource based only on the law.

This project is not intended to enable the provision of legal advice. Translations are neither certified nor official. All translations and terms in the Glossary are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License and may not be used for commercial purposes.