North Korea's instability is due in part to the devastating famine of the 1990s, and the state's ineffective response to the humanitarian crisis triggered by the famine, which resulted in the outflow of perhaps tens of thousands of refugees. These refugees' narratives are largely overlooked in evaluating the efficacy of the humanitarian aid program. This volume uses extensive surveys with refugees, who now reside in China or South Korea, to provide extraordinary insight into the changing pathways to power, wealth, and status within North Korea. These refugee testimonies provide an invaluable interpretation of the regime, its motivations, and its capabilities and assess the situation on the ground with the rise of inequality, corruption, and disaffection in the decade since the famine. Preeminent North Korean expert Marcus Noland carefully documents the country's transition from a centrally planned economy to a distorted market economy, characterized by endemic corruption.