So to find out what North Koreans think about their government and society, one has no choice but to talk to defectors who have managed to escape to South Korea. As the British ambassador put it with devastating frankness last year, "We get no information from the government whatsoever", and there are few sources of information in Pyongyang to turn to who are not government officials. True, tourists can visit the showcase capital, Pyongyang, for a few days and enjoy some pleasant chat with their affable but carefully selected minders, but they will gain few insights into what makes the country tick and they will have no opportunity to speak to anyone who could be remotely regarded as an ordinary North Korean. The government's main mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency, has a firm policy of reporting almost no news. I f Stalin's Russia was, in Churchill's words, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma", North Korea is an impenetrable black hole.
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