North Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. It is Orwells 1984 made reality. The regime controls the flow of information to its citizens, pouring relentless propaganda through omnipresent loud speakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty and the slightest sign of discontent. You must bow to Kim Il Sung, the Eternal Leader and to his son, Generalissimo Kim Jong Il. Worship the dead and then hail the living, the Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. North Koreans are told their home is the greatest nation on earth. Big Brother is always watching.

Posing as a university professor, award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney travelled undercover to gain unprecedented access to the worlds most secret state. Drawing on his own experiences and his extensive interviews with defectors and other key witnesses,North Korea Undercoverpulls back the curtain, providing a rare insight into life there today, examining the countrys troubled history and addressing important questions about its uncertain future.

Sweeneys highly engaging, authoritative account illuminates the dark side of the Hermit Kingdom and challenges the Wests perception of this paranoid nationalist state.

John Sweeneyis a reporter for BBC Panorama who became a YouTube sensation when he lost his temper with a senior member of the Church of Scientology. Before joining the BBC in 2001, Sweeney worked for twelve years atThe Observer,where he covered wars and revolutions and unrest in more than sixty countries from Algeria, Bosnia, Chechnya to Zimbabwe. He has helped free seven innocent people falsely convicted for killing their babies and given evidence against six suspected war criminals in The Hague.

Over the course of his career John has won one Emmy, two Royal Television Society prizes, one Sony Gold award, the What The Papers Say Journalist of The Year Prize, an Amnesty International prize and the Paul Foot Award.

He is the author of eight books, including most recentlyThe Church of Fear Inside The Weird World of Scientology.His hobby is falling off his bike on the way back from the pub.