North Korea is probably the most mysterious and inaccessible country in the world today. Officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Pyongyang regime is headed by perhaps the most mercurial enigmatic political leader alive. No prominent figure of the early 21st century has been more reviled by Americans or considered more dangerous to the United States, with the possible exception of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden than Kim Jong II. The regime Kim leads is generally considered to be one of the most repressive in existence, with a vast gulag, a massive security apparatus, and as extensive system of controls. Despite the facade of a powerful party state possessing an enormous military, the North Korean economy is in shambles, hundreds of thousands of its people are living either as refugees in Chine or as displaced persons inside their own country, and as many as three and a half million people have died from starvation and related diseases."