Pyrolysis characteristics of a North Korean oil shale and its pyrolysates were investigated in this paper. The pyrolysis experiments were conducted below 600 °C at a heating rate of 10, 15, 20 and 25 °C/min, respectively. The kinetics data were calculated using both integral and differential methods with the assumption of first order kinetics. The results show that the averaged oil content of the North Korean oil shale is about 12.1 wt% and its heat value is 13,400 kJ/kg. The oil yields at different retorting temperatures show that the higher the retorting temperature the greater the oil and retorting gas yields. The optimal retorting temperature for the North Korean oil shale is about 500 oC. The properties of the North Korean shale oil including density, viscosity, flash point and freezing point are found to be relatively low compared with those of shale oil from FuShun, China. The gasoline fraction, diesel fraction and heavy oil fraction account for 11.5 wt%, 41.5 wt% and 47 wt%, respectively. The major pyrolysis gases are CH4 (the most abundant), H2, CO2, H2S, CO, and C2-C5 hydrocarbons. The heat value of retorting gas is more than 900 kJ/mol, and the retorting gas has high sulfur content.