Delegation Tracker
The NK PRO Delegation Tracker records all visits of foreigners to North Korea and travels of North Koreans abroad as reported in DPRK media — 7,500+ delegations across nearly 25 years. The most complete open-source record of North Korea’s official foreign contacts.
The Delegation Tracker records all international exchanges involving North Korea as reported by KCNA and Rodong Sinmun. Covering almost 25 years of exchanges, the data set includes more than 7,500 delegations — tracing broader engagement trends alongside the involvement of specific individuals and the bilateral exchange record with individual countries.
New exchanges are added within a week of reporting. Where possible, incorrect spellings or transcriptions of names in North Korean media have been corrected. Where no English transcription was provided and a name could not be identified, an approximation is given.
Data sources: KCNA (from 1996), Rodong Sinmun (from 2015), DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (from 2017) — all available through the KCNA Watch archive. Relevant entries are identified through more than 20 keywords associated with international exchanges in Korean and English reports.
Cross-referenceable with the Leadership Tracker for delegation member identification and the NK Flight Tracker for travel corroboration.
Built and maintained with contributions from Martin Weiser and Seonwook Kim.
7,500+
Delegations recorded
25 years
Coverage from 1996
20+
Keywords tracked
Weekly
Update frequency
How delegations are classified
Diplomatic
Any visits of government and state officials, local governments, or party delegations. The baseline category for state-to-state engagement.
Civilian
Any delegation not categorized as diplomatic. People-to-people exchanges, professional visits, cultural contacts outside state structures.
Military
Meetings with a specific military background. Participation of military officials in broader summits is not included — only exchanges with a primary military character.
Economic
Any exchange involving business persons, companies, or diplomats with a clear portfolio relevant to the North Korean economy — trade, fisheries, tourism, investment.
Social / Culture / Sports
Delegations for sports, arts, culture, or religious exchange — plus national organizations for social groups including women’s, youth, and trade union bodies.
Event information
Each delegation records origin and destination, start and end dates (where available), and all persons mentioned by media as part of the delegation or as counterparts in the destination country.
What you can do with it
Overview visualization
A big-data overview summarizes delegation counts per year for North Korean and foreign delegations, broken down by all five categories. Highlights top countries and their share of total engagement.
Delegation list
The delegation list can be filtered by participants, date range, involved countries, and international organizations. Each entry links to the original KCNA Watch source text and displays all persons involved.
Country view
The country page allows specific filtering by origin of participants and location of meetings — giving the complete bilateral exchange record between North Korea and any country in the database.
Individual delegation pages
Each delegation has its own page linking directly to the original KCNA Watch text. All persons involved are displayed, including their positions as named by North Korean media. When North Koreans met visitors from several countries at one event, all contacts are displayed together on the same page.
Cross-reference
Delegation members can be cross-referenced with Leadership Tracker biographies for context on seniority, portfolio, and known travel history. Use with the NK Flight Tracker for aviation-corroborated movement analysis.
Use cases by sector
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Get access
The Delegation Tracker is included with all NK PRO memberships. Response within 1 business day.