This journalist didn’t just interview North Korean defectors, he followed them on their escape

Lee Hark-joon, a journalist for the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, sheds new light on the ordinary lives of North Koreans with his extraordinary book "Crossing Heaven’s Border." (YouTube)

By Anna Fifield-June 20

North Korea is not the “Hermit Kingdom” it once was. After two decades of defections and the more recent arrival of cellphone technology, we now know much more about North Korea than we did in years past. Which is not to say that we know a lot. North Korea remains the world’s most isolated state, and the inner workings of Kim Jong Un’s regime remain a mystery, with reports about the goings on in Pyongyang difficult, if not impossible, to verify.

This Journalist Didn’t Just Interview North Korean Defectors, He Followed Them on Their Escape by Thavam Ratna