With a paucity of authoritative firsthand information on North Korea available to the citizens of the world's democracies, discourse on the subject is impeded, and the democratic deficit regarding national policies towards the DPRK is necessarily broadened. Indeed, at no other time has the need for this information been more acute. The six-party talks regarding the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula made plain the DPRK's ambition (and ability) to play a larger role in world affairs, and its formal nuclear tests have exacerbated the tension and urgency of the situation. The death of Kim...