A recently released book on the daily lives of North Koreans grew out of a desire to portray the changing circumstances of the North’s regular people, one of its co-authors told NK News.

Rather than making policy prescriptions, predictions or dire stories about the regime’s weapons programs, the authors of North Korea Confidential Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors rely on variety of sources to show how North Koreans make money, make fashion choices and exercise growing clout as their monetary concerns have eased.