North Korea Confidential

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...

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.

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.

I found this to be an excellent source of information on many topics having to do with North Korea in today's world. The country is undergoing change because it has to if it is to survive. As a result of the famine in the mid-1990s, many people, especially women, found that the only way they could survive and earn a little money for a small amount of food for their family was to make a few rice cakes or cookies, biscuits, with what they had and then sell it in a little "market" with the food laid out on a cloth on the ground, which was illegal, but it made enough to buy more food for the family for that night's dinner.Many things are still illegal in the DPRK that people tend to ignore and can easily hide, such as CDs, DVDs and flash drives. North Koreans are very fond of South Korean music, movies and TV shows, and also Western movies. These all have to be watched in secret, but their is a growing market for these goods that people smuggle in from China and South Korea.The book explains the manner of dress that men and women are attracted to and also the conflict with the older generation of North Koreans who are much more conservative than today's young people. It is a very informative look about the DPRK that doesn't specifically concentrate on a person's defection or time in a prison camp, although it does discuss the latter a bit. The country is slowly changing because that is the only way that it can survive in today's world, and even though owning even a small business is illegal, the government now tends to look the other way and government workers as well as police and military are always willing to take bribes to allow the person to continue to do business. The old feudal state is gone and farmers are allowed to keep 30% of their crops, and the food rationing system has gone by the wayside, too. North Korea has a lot of catching up to do in their economy, government and the way they see the West, but it won't happen over night.The authors have given a more positive outlook for the future of the DPRK and but it still has a long way to go. The book is easy to read and packed with good information.

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, das nicht viele, aber immer mehr haben in der wachsenden Schicht kapitalistisch gesonnener Unternehmer/innen: von bestens vernetzten Privatisierern von Staatsvermögen im großen Stil bis zu den Ungezählten, die sich von ihrem Arbeitsplatz tageweise freikaufen, um am Markt USB-Sticks mit westlichen Filmen zu verkaufen.Cliquen-regierte und sich aggressiv gebärdende Staaten wie Nordkorea stellen die internationale Gemeinschaft vor Herausforderungen. Herausforderungen, die nur mit genauem Hinsehen und Verstehen effizient zu bewältigen sind. Dieses Buch ist ein kompetenter Beitrag dazu. Und dabei noch einer, der hoch spannend zu lesen ist.

This is a highly readable book giving a comprehensive and at times very surprising insights into life in today's North Korea, from the fashion-following, tablet-wielding denizens of Pyongyang, to the central importance of the jangmajang markets for individuals making their own way utterly apart from the state's desperate meddling, to the horrific menace of the state security apparatus. That said, the book outlines the extent to which money has replaced and undermined the structures of loyalty and surveillance in the 20 years following the famine, and this book neatly bookends the country's development since the 1990s' famine that Demyck covers so well in Nothing To Envy.