Researching contemporary North Korea and North Koreans is fraught with danger. Not necessarily for the researchers themselves (although the DPRK regime has shown not to be above threats and intimidation aimed at academics), but also and primarily for North Koreans themselves. It does not take a great feat of imagination to picture what could happen to anyone perceived in Pyongyang to have fallen foul of the regime, or to just be expendable. These considerations informed our protection protocols, but have not dissuaded us from doing the research in the first place. Our prime reason for undertaking this research was the realization that the sudden increase in DPRK overseas forced labour would continue, given the low risks and high profits involved for the DPRK. This victimizes a growing number of people and secures abundant sources of hard currency for a state that, in terms of human rights violations, was considered in 2014 to be ‘without parallel’ by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK.