ABSTRACT This article examines the use of North Korean defectors’ accounts as a source of information for studying the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Information from defectors fills a vital knowledge gap and improves our understanding of North Korean politics, economics, and society. Witness accounts and interview data collected from people who were born in North Korea but have since left have been widely used by journalists, government agencies, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academics. There are, however, serious methodological issues in collecting, organizing, and interpreting information derived from defectors’ accounts. Selection and demographic biases, power relations between researchers and interviewees, monetary incentives, and language barriers are among those issues. We propose focus group discussions and participatory observation as complementary methods of data collection to mitigate the shortfalls of relying on individual interviews.

中文翻译：

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通过朝鲜移民研究朝鲜：实地经验教训

摘要 本文考察了使用朝鲜叛逃者的账户作为研究朝鲜民主主义人民共和国 (DPRK) 的信息来源。脱北者提供的信息填补了重要的知识空白，提高了我们对朝鲜政治、经济和社会的理解。从出生在朝鲜但后来离开的人那里收集的证人陈述和采访数据已被记者、政府机构、国际组织、非政府组织和学术界广泛使用。然而，在收集、组织和解释从叛逃者的账户中获得的信息方面存在严重的方法问题。这些问题包括选择和人口偏见、研究人员和受访者之间的权力关系、金钱激励和语言障碍。