Swiss Aid Worker's Rare Footage Reveals Hidden Life Inside North Korea From Famine Years to Pyongyang Cafes

HONG KONG — For nearly a quarter-century, Swiss aid worker Kathi Zellweger traveled to one of the world's most closed-off countries, delivering food, seeds and medical supplies while quietly documenting life far beyond the polished image North Korea presents to the outside world.

Now, previously unseen footage she captured during those years is offering a rare look inside the isolated nation, from the hardship of the 1990s famine to the gradual changes that reshaped its capital in more recent years.

The footage was featured in a CNN report, "The Secret Lives of North Korea," presented by correspondent Will Ripley and released last week. The 15-minute video draws on Zellweger's personal recordings, which capture private moments and parts of the country few outsiders have ever seen.

Decades of access

Zellweger made 75 trips to North Korea, beginning with her first visit in 1995, shortly before a devastating famine swept the country, and ending with her final trip in December 2019.

She first became involved through Caritas, the Catholic humanitarian and development agency, where she worked for nearly 30 years at its Hong Kong office and played a key role in pioneering the organization's work in China and North Korea. As director of international operations, she oversaw food aid to North Korea during the famine.

From 2006 to 2011, she lived in Pyongyang as country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, making her one of very few Westerners to have resided in the North Korean capital. She later founded her own nonprofit, KorAid, which supported children in institutions and people with disabilities and provided supplies for cataract surgeries.

For many North Koreans she met, Zellweger was the first foreigner they had ever seen.

Beyond the showpiece capital

Her access allowed her to travel and film outside Pyongyang, the carefully managed capital that foreign visitors are typically shown. The footage highlights the stark contrast between the relatively privileged capital and the struggling countryside.

Scenes from the famine years show the harsh conditions faced by ordinary families, many of whom lived on meager rations. The famine of the mid-to-late 1990s, triggered by economic collapse, natural disasters and the loss of Soviet support, killed an estimated hundreds of thousands of people, though precise figures remain unknown.

Zellweger's work focused on helping communities survive and recover. She provided food assistance and worked to boost agricultural productivity through supplies of seeds and other support. Her programs also assisted hospitals that lacked basic anesthesia and modern equipment.

Discipline and daily life

The footage also documents aspects of North Korean society shaped by the state, including the strict discipline and large-scale, state-organized performances that are hallmarks of the country's political culture.

At the same time, Zellweger's recordings capture more personal moments, glimpses of everyday people and the relationships she built over decades of repeated visits.

Access to a church

Among the more unusual scenes is footage from a Catholic church in Pyongyang. North Korea's government is deeply suspicious of organized religion and tightly restricts religious practice, but Zellweger, who worked for a Catholic agency, was permitted to visit the state-sanctioned church.

The Vatican later honored Zellweger in recognition of her humanitarian work in North Korea.

A changing capital

Over the years, Zellweger also witnessed changes in Pyongyang itself. Her footage shows the emergence of new neighborhoods and high-rise buildings, increasing traffic and the appearance of coffee shops, reflecting a modest expansion of consumer life in the capital, particularly among its more privileged residents.

Those changes, however, were largely confined to Pyongyang. Much of the countryside continued to face economic hardship and food shortages.

An abrupt ending

Zellweger's long engagement with North Korea ended suddenly. In January 2020, North Korea sealed its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, cutting off most foreign aid workers and diplomats.

The closure meant Zellweger was unable to return or to say goodbye to the many North Koreans she had worked with and come to know over 25 years.

North Korea has remained largely closed to international aid organizations since then, with most foreign humanitarian staff unable to resume work inside the country.

A new book and wider attention

Zellweger has also shared her experiences in a new book, "Miss Kathi: Saving Lives in North Korea," written with longtime journalist Mike Chinoy. The book chronicles her 75 trips, her life among foreign residents in Pyongyang and her interactions with North Korean staff and communities.

Reviewing the book, John Feffer wrote: "For everyone who has worked in and around North Korea, Kathi Zellweger has been a role model." He described her as practical and clear-eyed about the nature of the North Korean system, yet hopeful about how outside assistance could improve the lives of ordinary people.

Zellweger is affiliated with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and is a non-resident fellow at the European Center for North Korean Studies at the University of Vienna. She is scheduled to discuss her experiences with Chinoy at an Asia Society event in San Francisco on Oct. 27.

A rare window

Independent footage from inside North Korea remains extremely scarce. The government tightly controls what foreigners can see and record, and most images reaching the outside world come from state media or closely supervised visits.

Zellweger's recordings, spanning famine, recovery and gradual change, offer a rare long-term view of a country that remains one of the least understood in the world, and a reminder of the human lives behind the headlines about nuclear weapons and political tensions.