All high-quality studies of North Korean history have one unusual tendency: when it comes to the 1940s, the normally-referenced official documents are those of North Korean and Soviet authorities.

When it comes to the later ages, however, the focus gradually shifts to documents of foreign embassies in the DPRK, official North Korean publications, and, ultimately, testimonies of people who escaped from the DPRK, mixed with occasional secret documents of North Korea.

Four stages of history

The main reason for all of this is the core problem of North Korean studies: lack of sources.

In the case of the 1940s,