One of the wonderful opportunities Google Books opened to the world is the ability to find and trace obscure publications such as books published in small numbers or by small publishing houses as well as interviews in some old journals. This is truly a great asset for any historian, as one can find many valuable documents there which would have otherwise been obscured.

One document found through this process is a 1991 interview by Russian journal Ogonyok with Kang Sang Ho – a former Lieutenant General of the DPRK’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. This piece will introduce two of the most fascinating parts of General Kang’s interview: his testimonies on the beginning of the Korean War and on the purges of the 1950s in North Korea.