The Real North Korea

Francis Grove-White, International Affairs In his accessible and refreshingly fair-minded new book, Andrei Lankov does a fine job of making sense of the worlds most inscrutable state. ... Fizzing with anecdotes and insights, many of them provided by Lankovs countless contacts, it is a commanding overview of the countrys politics and society, and a significant contribution to policy debates in the United States and South Korea.

Andrei Lankov is Professor of History at Koomkin University in Seoul, South Korea. A native of Leningrad, he studied in North Korea as an exchange student. His books include North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea, and From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945-1960.

Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; Transcription ; CHAPTER 1 The Society Kim Il Sung Built and How He Did It ; Captain Kim Returns Home ; The War and What came after ; Between Moscow and Beijing: The Foreign Policy of Kim Il Sung's North Korea ; Dealing with the South ; The Command Society ; A Country of Camps ; The World According to Kim Il Sung ; The Silver Lining in a Social Disaster ; The Birth of Juche, the Rise of the Son, and the Slow-Motion Demise of a Hyper-Stalinist Economy ; CHAPTER 2 Two Decades of Crisis ; And Then the World Changed ; Capitalism Reborn ; The State Withers Away ; Taking the Exit Option: Not an Exodus Yet, But ... ; Arrival in Paradise, aka Capitalist Hell ; Changing Worldviews ; CHAPTER 3 The Logic of Survival (Domestically) ; Reform as Collective Political Suicide ; Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle: (Not-So-Successful) Crackdowns on Market Activity ; A Disaster That Almost Happened: The Currency Reform of 2009 ; Still Poor and Malnourished, but Starving No More ; CHAPTER 4 The Supreme Leader And His Era ; The Belated Emergence of a <"Young General>" ; The Sudden Dawn of a New Era ; Collapse of the old guard ; The New Policy ; The New Logic ; Tensions with the South ; CHAPTER 5 Survival Diplomacy ; Playing the Nuclear Card ; Aid-Maximizing Diplomacy ; Meanwhile, in South Korea ... (the Rise of 386ers and Its Consequences) ; A Decade of Sunshine ; The Sun Sets ; The Entry of China ; Interlude The Contours of a Future: What Might Happen to North Korea in the Next Two Decades ; CHAPTER 6 What to Do about the North? ; Why Sticks Are Not Big Enough ; Why the Carrots Are Not Sweet Enough (and Why <"Strategic Patience>" Is Not a Great Idea, Either) ; Thinking Long Term ; The Hidden Benefits of Engagement ; Reaching the People ; Why They Matter: Working with the Refugees in South Korea ; CHAPTER 7 Being Ready for What We Wish For ; A Perfect Storm ; A Provisional Confederation as the Least Unacceptable Solution ; Something about Painkillers ... ; Conclusion ; Notes ; Index