Veronika Bartel, Manager of Monitoring & Assessment, recently represented Open Nuclear Network at the Spring 2026 Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Short Course organised by VCDNP, continuing ONN’s long-standing tradition of contributing to these short courses and sharing our work on open-source monitoring of the DPRK’s nuclear programme.
In her lecture, Veronika explored the challenges of monitoring and verifying activities in North Korea as a low-information environment, characterised by the absence of objective reporting on the ground, the need to decipher propaganda, the lack of public social media use, and limited opportunities for official engagement.
Given these constraints, monitoring efforts depend heavily on independent sources of data, particularly remote sensing such as satellite imagery. The session reviewed the most up-to-date status of the DPRK’s nuclear facilities and engaged diplomats on the practical OSINT tools and methods that can support monitoring and verification in such cases.
We are grateful to VCDNP for the opportunity to share our insights with Vienna’s diplomatic community.
