Due to firewood shortage, North Korean residents have difficulty heating their homes and staying warm this winter.

North Koreans usually prepare kindling or charcoal briquettes in autumn, but a source in North Hamgyong Province said that most people were unable to purchase enough due to the high price of firewood.

The price of firewood climbed from KPW 2,000 in mid-November to KPW 3,000 in December, a 50 percent increase.

With temperatures dropping to as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius, many families live “hellish lives” in the cold while experiencing ongoing food shortages.

A source told DailyNK that “Children inevitably come down with colds because they have weakened immunity from malnutrition, and [their parents] can’t even heat their homes in the cold. Parents feel terrible because they can’t buy a single tablet of medicine, even when their kids come down with serious colds.”

According to another source from Hyesan, people began stealing anything that will burn, including the plywood gates of private homes, due to economic difficulties. There were several cases where thieves were caught and beaten to death.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile into the waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula.

The hypersonic missile flew about 1,000 kilometers (around 600 miles) at a maximum altitude of at least 50 kilometers (around 30 miles) before landing in the sea.

If North Korea is able to successfully deploy a hypersonic weapon, analysts say it could change the military equation in the region.

The North has ramped up its provocative missile tests after declaring its southern neighbor as the “principal enemy,” adding that the Koreas will never reunite while vowing to enhance its ability to deliver a nuclear strike on the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific.

Following the launch, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan began working together to analyze further details of the missile, with the South Korean military maintaining “full readiness posture.”

Unlike his predecessors, whose birthdays were marked by national celebrations during their time in power, the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has never officially revealed his birth date.

However, Kim’s birthday has been suggested to be January 8, ever since the U.S. basketball player, Dennis Rodman, sang happy birthday to him in front of a large crowd in Pyongyang on the same date six years ago.

Kim is speculated to have turned 40 this year, but unlike previous years where large funds were raised to give away candies to children ahead of the leader’s birthday, North Korea has significantly lowered both the quantity and quality of candies this year.

The government also limited confectionery gifts to children aged 6 or younger.

According to the South Korean defense minister, North Korea is looking to send Russia new types of tactical guided missiles.

This cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow is condemned by the U.S. and its allies, describing Ukraine as a test site for the North’s nuclear-capable missiles as the country gains “valuable technical and military insights” about its arms.

South Korean envoy, Hwang Joon-kook, said that “the missiles fired into Ukraine are KN-23s, which the DPRK claims can deliver nuclear warheads.” Hwang added that one missile flew 460 kilometers (around 285 miles), which is the distance from a North Korean launch site to South Korea’s city of Busan. 

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un’s regime appears to be planning for a trial of atmospheric reentry of a warhead designed to be carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile to the U.S. mainland. In other words, North Korea would be firing a long-range rocket over several thousand kilometers.