Our father, we have nothing to envy in the world,
Our house is within the embrace of the< Workers' Party.
We are all brothers and sisters.
Even if a sea of fire comes toward us, sweet children do not need to be afraid,
Our father is here.
We have nothing to envy in this world.

North Korean children's song

What do we know about North Korea? The 'quintessential rogue regime' in the words of Jasper Becker, the most secretive of states, member of the 'axis of evil', run by a crazy dictator who 'brutalised his own population ... murdering or starving to death some four million people' while he 'swilled imported French cognac and gifted concubines with Swiss watches'. A notoriously armed and dangerous regime whose collapse has been striven for - and predicted - for many years.

LRB 10 June 2010 | PDF Download