A New York City-based nonprofit, known for its radical pro-North Korea stance, has launched an unusual campaign portraying North Korea as a utopian haven where housing is free. This peculiar message has been disseminated through a recent Instagram post by Nodutdol, a group headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The post, shared with its 42,000 followers on April 1, features an idealized image of children frolicking in the snow before a modern apartment block that bears a striking resemblance to American architecture.
The organization, whose name translates to “stepping stone” in Korean, is actively engaged in cultivating support among American leftists for North Korea, tapping into shared criticisms of “US imperialism.” Their social media narrative criticizes US capitalism for allegedly “manufacturing a housing crisis at home,” suggesting that the conditions in North Korea are evidence of how socialist countries offer an alternative.
In its post, Nodutdol showcases images of 163,000 newly constructed housing units in Pyongyang and rural areas, asserting that “things don’t have to be this way” and positioning North Korea as a model for successful socialist policies.
However, this portrayal starkly contrasts with the reality on the ground. In North Korea, housing is state-built and distributed according to job status and loyalty to Kim Jong Un’s regime. Reports from organizations like Human Rights Watch highlight systemic violations by the North Korean government, including the infringement on the right to an adequate standard of living. This reality casts a shadow over the idyllic image Nodutdol attempts to project.
“Things don’t have to be this way, and socialist countries are proof of that,” it says before showing images of 163,000 recently built housing units in capital Pyongyang and rural areas across the country.
But in reality, housing in the land of dictator Kim Jong Un is built by the state and allocated based on job, status and loyalty to the regime — with organizations like Human Rights Watch finding that “the North Korean government systematically violates…the right to adequate standard of living.”
While military and party officials — including Ri Chun Hi, the country’s most prolific state propaganda anchor, known as “the pink lady,” who received a luxury home in 2022 — are granted preferential housing, ordinary people typically get the bottom of the barrel, with decrepit homes that often lack electricity.
Construction tends to be rushed for political optics, leaving people living in unfinished or unsafe buildings, and deadly apartment collapses have occasionally made the news despite tight media control — such as the 2014 collapse of a 23-story building in Pyongyang, which killed more than 160 people.
The propaganda campaign seemed too much even for some of Nodutdol’s supporters.
“I’m really trying to support this platform … but there is some clear misinformation going on,” commented one Instagram user.
Others, meanwhile, didn’t seem to see through the smoke and mirrors.
“Me crying as I pay my rent,” lamented a commenter.
Nodutdol runs out of the sprawling Midtown digs of the People’s Forum on West 37th Street, where it regularly hosts seemingly innocuous events like its “Kimchi Bowl” year-end fundraiser, while peddling pro-Noko propaganda.
The under the radar organization has close ties to the nonprofit run by tech millionaire Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans’ Code Pink. T
hat group was part of the recent “Nuestra America” convoy that saw hundreds of tone-deaf radicals meet with the communist regime in Havana, Cuba — where they stayed in 5-star hotels while the island nation was in crisis.
Code Pink and the People’s Forum have been linked to Chinese influence operations in a State Department report to Congress.
One of Nodutdol’s central demands is putting an end to the US-South Korea alliance. It also pushes for the reunification of North and South Korea and “for a world free of imperialism.”
Nodutdol did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
