Passcode to the Third Floor: An Insider’s Account of Life Among North Korea’s Political Elite

Thae Yong-ho was North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom before fleeing with his family to South Korea, making him the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat ever to defect. He currently serves as a member of the National Assembly for the Gangnam district of Seoul and is the first North Korean defector to win a South Korean parliamentary seat.

Robert Lauler has a BA in Korean language and literature from the University of Washington and an MA from Seoul National University. He currently works as English-language editor at Daily NK, an online newspaper that operates a clandestine network of sources inside North Korea.