The Madness of North Korea

From The Guardian:

There is no way of checking on the narrative, but Jang's account looks like the most telling yet of the madness of North Korea. Jang fled the country in 2004, ending up in South Korea, after a series of events sparked by a friend, to whom he had given a book purloined from Office 101, leaving it on a train where it was found by police. So this book is, in a sense, 10 years out of date. But there is no reason not to think that the system Jang describes remains in place today including the harrowing details of public executions, his own escape story via China and the North Korean women sold there "as pigs", plus an important and convincing account of how the Dear Leader conspired to wrest power from his ageing father, Kim Il-sung, and the score  settling that followed. This seems to have been replicated by  recent events with fresh executions at the top, including that of Jang Song-Thaek, the uncle of Kim Jong-un, and his entire extended family. (Read more.)