North Korea defies comparison with pretty much any other society. Putting aside considerations of whether it constitutes a threat to its neighbours or the world, it poses a difficult set of moral issues to those who are repelled at the operation of the North Korean state and its internal arrangements. Simply put there is very little that can be done, short of a military intervention that should best be avoided. Reform, should it come, would need to originate from within the state, at least as a first step. To the extent that some reformist impulses exist, Zook argues, they would have to be articulated as measures calculated to strengthen and fortify the existing system.