The Real North Korea

International Affairs Journal In his accessible and refreshingly fair-minded new book, Andrei Lankov does a fine job of making sense of the world's most inscrutable state...it is a commanding overview of the country's politics and society, and a significant contribution to policy debates in the United States and South Korea.


Clare Debenham, THE Lankov offers a nuanced picture of this secretive country, drawing on his own experience and the North Koreans he has interviewed.


Oliver Kamm, The Times [ The Real North Korea ] provides an extraordinary insight into a state that defies conventional categories of tyranny.


Aidan Foster-Carter, Times Literary Supplement This is the best all round account of North Korea yet.


Christian Oliver, Financial Times [Lankov's] book is an important curative to the unhelpful gaggle of pundits who describe nuclear-armed North Korea as "irrational" or an impenetrable "black box"


Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times There is no better road map in English than this wise, anecdotally rich and entertaining book.


new York Times Book Review Superb,.. An engaging blend of scholarship, reportage and memoir, offers striking details about daily life in a country reminiscent of George Orwell's '1984'.


Publishers Weekly [A] probing, clear-eyed study Lankov's is one of the best and most accessible recent accounts of this seemingly outlandish nation.

<br>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.<br>

INTRODUCTION ; PART 1. THE SOCIETY KIM IL SUNG BUILT AND HOW HE DID IT ; PART 2: TWO DECADES OF CRISIS ; PART 3. THE LOGIC OF SURVIVAL (DOMESTICALLY) ; PART 4. THE SURVIVAL DIPLOMACY ; PART 5. WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE NORTH? ; PART 6. BEING READY FOR WHAT WE WISH FOR ; CONCLUSION