If you really want to dive deep into understanding the DPRK’s history and present, here is an expanding library of required reading. These are the varied and contradictory perspectives of everyone from defectors to eager businessmen.

• The Aquariums of Pyongyang
• The Cleanest Race
• Dear Leader
• Escape from Camp 14
• The Girl with Seven Names
• The Impossible State
• Inside North Korea
• North Korea: State of Paranoia
• Nothing to Envy
• The Orphan Master’s Son
• The Real North Korea
• A Thousand Miles to Freedom
• Under the Same Sky
• Without You, There Is No Us