In the mid-1990s, as many as one million North Koreans died in one of the worst famines of the twentieth century. Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland present the most comprehensive and penetrating account of the famine to date, examining not only the origins and aftermath of the crisis but also the regime's response to outside aid and the effect of its current policies on the country's economic future. North Korea's famine exemplified the depredations that can arise from tyrannical rule and the dilemmas such regimes pose for the humanitarian community. To reveal the state's culpability is a vital project of historical recovery, especially in light of our current engagement with the "North Korean question."