The Real North Korea

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.

Autorentext
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.

Klappentext
In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive.

Zusammenfassung
Andrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the former Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal contacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding. In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. After providing an accessible history of the nation, he turns his focus to what North Korea is, what its leadership thinks, and how its people cope with living in such an oppressive and poor place. He argues that North Korea is not irrational, and nothing shows this better than its continuing survival against all odds. A living political fossil, it clings to existence in the face of limited resources and a zombie economy, manipulating great powers despite its weakness. Its leaders are not ideological zealots or madmen, but perhaps the best practitioners of Machiavellian politics that can be found in the modern world. Even though they preside over a failed state, they have successfully used diplomacy-including nuclear threats-to extract support from other nations. But while the people in charge have been ruthless and successful in holding on to power, Lankov goes on to argue that this cannot continue forever, since the old system is slowly falling apart. In the long run, with or without reform, the regime is unsustainable. Lankov contends that reforms, if attempted, will trigger a dramatic implosion of the regime. They will not prolong its existence. Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive.

Inhalt
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

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