North Koreans don’t just have a political system—they love and honor the state as mother and Dear Leader as father. Or so says the Korean Central News Agency. In The Cleanest Race, B.R. Myers examines Korean self-perception as embodied in full-color images, films, novels and myths—and why the West has it all wrong when it comes to North Korea.

Guest:

B.R. Myers, author of The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters (Melville House). He is a North Korea analyst and a contributing editor of the Atlantic Monthly. Myers currently is teaching North Korean literature in South Korea.