Martin Savidge hosts Barbara Demick of the LA Times and Leon Sigal of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project. They discuss North Korea's recent currency devaluation, how the state is closing underground markets, the grim economic reality for the North Korean people and the prospects of U.S. economic engagement with this rogue and isolated nation.

Worldfocus presents the year's highlights from our online "Perspectives" section, which features the work of regular contributors to the broadcast and website. Read their most compelling personal accounts and commentary from 2009, touching on subjects ranging from the seemingly-endless war in eastern Congo to pop culture in North Korea.

Gideon Rose of Foreign Affairs Magazine and James Rubin of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs join Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss President Barack Obama's trip to Asia and the focus of U.S.-China relations.

The Obama administration is dealing with the thorny issue of North Korea's nuclear program. To take a closer look, Leon Sigal of the Social Science Research Council in New York speaks with Daljit Dhaliwal. They discuss Sigal's recent meeting with a North Korean delegation in New York -- and how willing the North Koreans are to negotiate.

Part 5 of 6 in our "Inside the Hermit Kingdom" series on the people and culture of North Korea. Multimedia producer Ben Piven's video chronicles his five-day trip in August. Watch original footage of the Pyongyang Metro, rural countryside, Demilitarized Zone and everyday North Koreans.