Communist countries have never been known for openness, but even judged by such standards, North Korea looks very secretive. 

All economic statistics, for example, have been kept confidential unless explicitly declared otherwise by the relevant authorities. From North Korean publications one cannot learn how many trucks and buses are in the country, what the prevalence of diseases is, and who holds key positions in the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee bureaucracy.

Some bans are not difficult to understand. The DPRK is a weak country facing an unfriendly world, so it makes sense that it wants to hide what