The weekly column “Ask a North Korean” published by NK News invites readers from around the globe to pose questions to North Korean defectors.

By way of these provocative interviews, the North Koreans themselves provide authentic, first-person testimonies about what is really happening inside the “Hermit Kingdom”!

The North Korean contributors to this book include:

• “Seong” who came to South Korea after dropping out during his final year of university. He is now training to be an elementary school teacher 
• “Kang” who left North Korea in 2005. He now lives in London 
• “Cheol” who was from South Hamgyeongm in North Korea and is now a second year university student in Seoul • “Park” who worked and studied in Pyongyang before defecting to the U.S. in 2011. He is now studying at a U.S. college

Adapted from the long-running Ask a North Korean column, this book sheds an important light on all aspects of North Korean politics and society, and shows that even in the world’s most authoritarian regime, life goes on in ways that are very different from what you may think.