Here I will collect information (reliable or not, transphobic or not, as details are scant) on the LGBT situation in Korea. Take some of this with a grain of salt, but I hope you enjoy some of the reading! This is just a result of some search engine witchcraft, if y’all find anything let me know.

People of Interest:

• Jang Yeong-jin | Jang Yeong-jin (Korean: 장영진; born 1957/1958) is a writer and the only openly gay North Korean defector. Yeong-jin was raised in Chongjin, a city on the eastern coast of North Korea.[3] During his childhood, Yeong-jin fell in love with a boy who was his friend named Seon-cheol, a friendship that lasted into adulthood.[2][3] They would hold hands and share beds.[2] Yeong-jin and Seon-cheol would later move to Pyongyang to attend different colleges.[3] They were separated in 1976 when they both joined the North Korean military.[3] According to Yeong-jin, “In winter, when soldiers were given only two threadbare blankets each and little heat, it was common for us to find a partner and sleep hugging each other at night to keep warm” and that “We considered it part of what the party called ‘revolutionary comradeship.’”

• Youtube Video In Korean: A transgender who traveled to North Korea! Reactions of North Koreans. A cis woman recounts having a transgender woman in her tour group in the DPRK in English. She claims that the trans woman had visited once pre-transition and once post transition. She said that the trans woman was stared at a lot and the North Koreans treated her as if she were a ‘man in a dress’. Otherwise, this cis woman has relatively positive things to say about the DPRK. I do not have the time to translate all the subtitles from the Korean speakers, many of whom are defectors, they said quite a lot. I could do it but it takes a lot of effort. Some of the subtitles say things (according to an automated translation) such as “North Koreans have a limited understanding of transsexuals.”, “Nothing about this will ever change in the North!”, “The Northerners must have been so shocked! (laughing)”, a defector says “We would never accept that and never allow it.”, “Not being able to have kids, HA!”, A man asks “Are you transgender?” A woman replies “No, but a man becoming a woman, maybe thats a good thing.” A woman from the ‘Pyongyang upper class’ says “It seems gay. (probably a bad translate) My husband was gay and my sister is now a gay man. So it sounds gay.” Someone claims that “Homosexuality is punished much less than drugs in the North. (perhaps a reference to lax drug laws?)”

I appreciate anyone adding full Korean -> English translations to this video if they’re capable. I’m just using AI magic. I might ping a friend that knows Korean if no on responds and ask them for a translation of the video.