Exploring North Korea: An Inside Look at Life and Politics in a Stalinist Utopia

th: Es gibt wenig gute Literatur zu Nordkorea. Dieses Buch ist sehr zu empfehlen.

Germany on Nov 17, 2023

bibliophile89: Really interesting and easy to digest history of North Korea. Great history. I wish there was more background into North Korea prior to the Kim dictatorship but I think that’ll be another book

United Kingdom on May 01, 2023

Luis Rojo: Gran libro con información de primera mano sobre la vida y gobierno de Corea del Norte. Eso si, parece mas un largo artículo académico.

Mexico on Mar 08, 2020

Debjit Sengupta: How much we know about North Korea? They are usually in news for three reasons- Their nuclear ambition, idiosyncratic rulers and people living a life of penury. The media especially Western media have been instrumental in people forming a stereotype idea about the nation. One cannot rule out the contents of the reportage but presenting one side of story that suits them, ignores the larger picture. News reporting on North Korea has been most often done sardonically; and biased too at times. The fact remains that we know very little about this closed and mysterious nation. I had been searching for a book which gives a correct and unbiased account. I came across decent number of books until I stumbled upon this one authored by Andrei Lankov. The author has seen the social, political and economic life from close.

North Korea was born in Sep’1948, just one month after South Korea was proclaimed as a nation. Both the nations claims being the sole legitimate owner of the entire Korean Peninsula. Unification is of paramount importance. However the issue has lost steam in recent years. Being a Communist nation, North Korea was under the influence of Soviet Union, who in turn...

India on Feb 24, 2017

Jean Michel BIelli: Encore un livre différent des autres que j'ai pu lire sur le sujet. Il est très intéressant et bien écrit, mais je le recommande pour deux raisons:
1. c'est un livre qui évite tous les clichés dans la mesure du possible. Il décrit bien évidemment les aspects les plus noirs du régime et de la vie en Corée du Nord, mais il décrit aussi dans le détail comment les coréens s'adaptent, comment ils arrivent à tourner les lois les plus dures, et comment ils communiquent avec le monde extérieur. J'ai bien aimé le fait que le côté manichéen soit systématiquement évité pour coller à la réalité.
2. la dernière partie du livre essaie d'envisager la façon dont pourrait évoluer le régime, quel pourrait être l'avenir de la Corée du Nord, les erreurs commises dans le passé dans les négotiations avec le régime coréen, pourquoi les sanctions sont inopérantes etc.. Une prospective vraiment intéressante et qui explique bien des choses que l'on ne comprend pas toujours en lisant la presse.

France on Oct 01, 2016

Craig RowlandCraig Rowland: The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov was written in 2013, two years after the Supreme Leader Marshal Kim Jong Un succeeded his late father, the Dear Leader Comrade General Kim Jong Il. Lankov was a Soviet-era exchange student who studied in Pyongyang and his fluency in Korean endeared him to his teachers and gave him access to the North Korean public. This book was unlike other modern accounts of the DPRK which I have read, in that it painted thoroughly dismal portraits of the future of the North after the inevitable downfall of its totalitarian system of government. I have read--and reviewed--quite a lot about the DPRK already, yet no book went as far in its detailed scenarios about the state of the northern half of the Korean peninsula after the Kim regime collapses. Yet before we get to the future of the DPRK, we have to deal with its past and present, and Lankov kept his history confined to the first chapter. The author thankfully did not bore me to sleep with his Korean War history, as I am prone to doze off when I read war stories. Thus I confess a personal prejudice for war histories in general.

Kim Jong Un inherited...

United States on May 28, 2016

Emigre author: I found this book when thinking about the recent controversy concerning the hacking of Sony Pictures systems, possibly by hackers located in or directed by North Korea. Rather than watch a film which had little appeal to me, The Interview, and which promised to provide only cliches about North Korea at best, I thought I would devote the time and money to finding a book which taught me something about Korean society, the nature of the regime in the north and the prospects for the future. Andrei Lankov's book more than met my expectations in this regard.

My knowledge of Korean history and society was pretty minimal. I knew a little about the Korean war, but from a Western perspective. I know a little about Stalinist societies in Europe, having visited several many years ago, I have followed the reforms and changes in China, Vietnam and Eastern Europe, but North Korea remained something of a mystery. Lankov provides some background on the Japanese invasion of China, the rise of a guerilla movement in Korea in which Kim Il Sung was active, and his ruthless consolidation of his position as leader in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This is done in outline and is not too taxing....

United States on Jan 21, 2015