Escape from North Korea - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Kate Adie presents stories from North Korea, the US, France, Antigua and Ireland.

Kim Jong-Un has made it harder to escape North Korea, and numbers of people who have done so successfully have dropped from a thousand each year to just 67 in 2022. 17-year-old Songmi Park was one of the last known people to escape, and Jean MacKenzie heard the story of her childhood there, and her reunion with her mother in Seoul.

Last year more than a hundred thousand Americans died from a drug overdose - two-thirds of them after using synthetic opioids like Fentanyl. Tim Mansel was in San Diego where he saw first hand how the opioid crisis still has a firm grip on American communities.

Paul Moss was in Paris during the street protests that have escalated across France after President Emmanuel Macron pushed through his pension reforms by decree. He ponders whether the writing is on the wall for President Macron's leadership.

Around 900 Cameroonians arrived in Antigua at the end of last year, though many had expected to touch down in the US, where they hoped to build a new life. Gemma Handy investigates why they failed to reach their final destination.

On the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Chris Page explores how, at critical moments during the peace process, it was the personal relationships between leaders which helped to finally get the agreement over the line. He spoke to many of the key players about their memories of that period.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross

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