Sharon LaFraniere interviews North Koreans on the dire situation of the state-run economy in North Korea in the aftermath of the November 30, 2009 currency devaluation.

Marcus Noland outlines two recent surveys of North Korean refugees in China and South Korea which found, not surprisingly, that North Koreans privately hold highly critical views of the regime and are rather miserable.

This report from the International Crisis Group provides an overview of the existing humanitarian crisis in North Korea and how tightening sanctions and domestic problems have deepened the DPRK human security tragedy.

The global effort to extinguish the nuclear peril needs to regain momentum. A bold act of leadership and imagination by one of the weapons-states could provide it.

This CRS paper argues that while the West has little leverage over North Korea, China and Russia can exert pressure on the country due to their extensive trade relationships with Pyongyang.

The United States Institute of Peace examines the impact of the recent redenomination of the won on the North Korean people and regime.

A report from an independent task force convened by the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations and the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation argues in favor of economic engagement with North Korea that could change North Korea's "confrontational foreign policy" and its own "self interest."

Andrew Higgins examines Kim Jong Un's, the third son and heir apparent of Kim Jong Il, sojourn at a Swiss high school and speculates whether his experiences there will have an effect on his reign as North Korea's next leader.

Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland write that sanctions alone are not enough to force North Korea to relinquish its nuclear weapons, but that the United States and other countries can make an impact if they pursue North Korea's international financial intermediaries, such as China.

The former deputy chief of the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks on North Korea during the Bush administration shares his observations on Kim Jong Il's true intentions and goals.

In this opinion piece, Henry Kissinger suggests the international diplomatic effort to manage North Korea's nuclear arsenal needs to harden, and adopt the elimination of North Korean nuclear weapons as its goal.

Marcus Noland of Peterson Institute for International Economics says although the North Korean case will be taken up in the UN Security Council, UN sanctions have proven utterly ineffective in deterring North Korean behavior.

President Barack Obama shouldn't respond too quickly, or too aggressively, to the North Korean nuclear test.

This DNI Open Source Center chart identifies the leadership hierarchy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

This USIP working paper examines regime stability in North Korea in the framework of "North Korea, Inc." - the state's trading companies and their commericial interactions with South Korea.

Todd Crowell asks, why does Japan obsess over North Korean kidnappings?

Saeed Shah writes about A.Q. Khan's first interview with an American news organization. The Pakistani nuclear scientist denied that he’d done anything but offer "very small advice" to Iran and Libya on where to acquire nuclear technology.

Nathan Robb, a political analyst at the Consulate General of Japan in New York, writes about the discussions between South Korean, Japanese, and American envoys on North Korean nuclear affairs. Japan has reservations about negotiating with the North Koreans when they have not acknowledged the abduction of dozens of Japanese civilians from 1979 to 1983.