North Korea is the world's most secretive country. For a decade the World Food Programme has acted as a rare window on the outside world. Its website has information on its projects. Perhaps surprisingly, a few aid agencies do run lowkey programmes in North Korea. They include: Mercy Corps, "a href="http://www.wvasiapacific.org/" target="new">World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Global Resource Services and Christian Friends of Korea.

For a comprehensive overview of the reasons behind the 1990s famine have a look at Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. It's very readable and contains the sort of critical analysis it would be impossible for anyone operating in North Korea to make without getting kicked out.

There are plenty of statistics and useful graphs. It also has a report on North Korea's secret prison camps, The Hidden Gulag.

Famine and Reform in North Korea, a 2003 report by Marcus Noland of the Institute for International Economics, contains much the same information as Hunger and Human Rights (which he co-wrote) but it is useful for an in depth analysis of the different death toll estimates. It also has a run down of non-governmental organisations that have pulled out of North Korea.

Thousands have fled hunger and oppression in North Korea via China. The unlucky ones get deported back across the border. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned that they face persecution on their return. UNHCR officials have been barred from the border areas in recent years. For information see the North Korean section of the UNHCR website. Writenet, a human rights and forced migration network, has written this slightly dry 2005 report on North Korean migration to China. It also addresses the famine and details the risks North Koreans face in crossing the border.

The UNHCR website Refworld has a useful list of reports on human rights in North Korea. Human Rights Watch also has good background material.

Finally, there is North Korea's state-run news agency KCNA. It doesn't contain a lot of news as most people would understand the term, but it gives an insight into the mentality of the leadership.