Uncovering North Korea: Exploring Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, and Defectors

DESDES: The outside world doesn't know much about life inside North Korea. Except for defectors' accounts, authoritative stories are hard to come by as high-ranking officials won't talk for fear of retaliation by the Government. In "North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors," authors Daniel Tudo and James Pearson give a rare glimpse of life inside the closed nation. They have unique vantage points and perspectives. Tudor lives in South Korea and is a noted authority on life behind the border. Pearson is a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Seoul.

The book confirms some of the things that we have known. North Korea is a poor nation and tightly ruled by the government. But despite what we may have heard, the North Korean people are not all happy with the leadership of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Un. They have found ways of getting around the government's rules, including the establishment of an underground economy. One of my biggest takeaways was learning about the spirit and resilience of its citizens.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone interested in North Korea’s future relationship with the United...

United States on Jan 21, 2021

Jan: It reads more like a report of loose facts without a narrative to make a homogeneous representation what North Korea represents. This makes for very dull reading indeed. For one somewhat familiar with North Korea through reading, this book does not offer any insights nor information that are new or revealing. There is plenty of redundant text through repetition, making it heftier than what it really is. I was very disappointed.

Australia on Aug 17, 2020

Juan: Narra la realidad dentro del estado más aislado del mundo. El libro de pasta dura viene bien encuadernado aunque se haya impreso en China. La temática es muy interesante.

Spain on Jan 21, 2018

Ron L: About as good as you can find in the search for authoritative accounts placing North Korea’s current location on the curve of either destruction or reform. Such a search is always limited by the North Korean government’s (murderous) attempts to limit access to knowledge regarding the extent of the disaster over which they are currently presiding. The higher the rank of the source, the higher the risk, and the less chance of positive identification, so we take what we can get.
Assuming sources of even moderate honesty, this is a vivid description of a failed and further failing government, the authors being sympathetic to the population/victims, and even strangely optimistic.
The population was starved into developing survival strategies and, not surprisingly, found which talents they each had to produce something salable on the illegal market to trade for food; a bottom-up market development. Calling it a ‘free market’ is a mistake; it is grossly distorted by the actual or perceived risks of government intervention, and in some cases is simply coerced by those acting in the government’s behalf or pretending to do so. A ‘black market’ it remains at the time of...

United States on Oct 19, 2017

MarcoPolo: Früher war es Idi Amin, der das Dämonische in der Welt verköperte. Oder Saddam Hussein das Böse schlechthin. Heute ist Nord Korea zur weltweiten Chiffre für "das Destruktive an sich" avanciert. Immer wenn Personen oder Staaten zur führenden Negativ-Marke im weltweiten Geschäft mit Stereotypen werden, lohnt es sich, genauer hinzusehen. (Übrigens auch bei positiven Stereotypen.)

Tudor & Pearson haben in "North Korea confidential" genau, analytisch und unaufgeregt entlang der Lebenswirklichkeit im Land hingesehen. Rasch differenziert sich der Monolith des Bösen zu einem vielschichtigen Gebilde: Eine fragile Mischung aus "Macht-Deadlock" und gegenseitiger Abhängigkeit zwischen der Kim-Familie und dem OGD - dem Machtkomplex der Partei - bildet die Achse jenes Staatssystems, das genug Unterstützer findet, weil genug davon profitieren. Die Hilflosigkeit des Staates gegenüber der Hungerkrise in den 1990ern hat einen Keil bleibender Entfremdung zwischen Partei und Bevölkerung getrieben. Der Staat verbietet vieles - vom Hören ausländischer Radiosender bis zum Tragen von Blue Jeans. Doch wer (Bestechungsgeld) hat, kann sich vieles leisten und vieles kaufen. Geld,...

Germany on Apr 09, 2016

Rabassiere: A totally new view of North Korea. I had no idea how life in the country had been transformed over the last ten years and of the immense changes forced on the regime by the famine. Still horrible for many of couse and no doubt highly dangerous internationally but the choice seems no longer to be eternity for the Kims on the one hand and collapse and chaos on the other.

France on Jan 02, 2016

Srinivasan Thothathri: I will recommend this book if you are interested in now north korea is trying to change. It gives a clear reasoning of why totalitarian and oppressive dynasties finally create a totally corrupt society, like India...

India on Sep 29, 2015