I wish we were able to read any trustworthy insider stories. Trying to tease apart propaganda from earnest storytelling is quite difficult ini english.

I have read The Aquariums of Pyongyang and Escape from Camp 14, both of which are very good. I think that Aquariums is a better overall book, as the author adds context and background throughout the narrative. Camp 14 is more straightforward and limited to his experience, which for a North Korean is quite limited. They are pretty dated at this point (2000 and 2012, respectively) so there are probably more timely options available now.

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but I highly recommend "The Real North Korea" by Andrei Lankov. It really helped to demystify the country for me.

To get some quick insights on North Korea, Andrei Lankov talks about it in this podcast: https://podcast.silverado.org/episodes/why-north-korea-is-pl...