According to recent documents released by UNESCO, North Korea has submitted kimchi to be nominated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, meaning that it would be officially recognized as important to world heritage and merit cultural protection from UNESCO. The submission for Intangible Cultural Heritage status, titled “Tradition of kimchi-making in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” is looking like a shoe-in for UNESCO status. 

North Korea will publish its own report on human rights in the isolated country, state-run media reported earlier this week. A report in the Korean Central News Agency on Monday highlighted the work being done by the DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies, an organization created in 1992 “with the objective of promoting human rights studies in the DPRK and coordinating in a unified manner the activities of human rights experts in various fields.”

For a second time, North Korea has rescinded an invitation for a special American envoy to visit Pyongyang, the capital, to seek the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary held in the country for over a year, the State Department said on Sunday.