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Book Details
Abstract
North Korea continues to make headlines, arousing curiosity and fear in equal measure. The world’s most secretive nuclear power, it still has Gulag-style prison camps, allows no access to the Internet and bans its people from talking to foreigners without official approval. In this remarkable and eye-opening book, internationally best-selling author Paul French examines in forensic detail the history and politics of North Korea, Pyongyang’s complex relations with South Korea, Japan, China and America, and the implications of Kim Jong-un’s increasingly belligerent leadership following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
As an already unstable North Korea grows ever more unpredictable, antagonizing enemies and allies alike, North Korea: State of Paranoia delivers a provocative and frightening account of a potentially explosive nuclear tripwire.
Born in London and educated there and in Glasgow, Paul French has lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. A leading expert on North Korea, he is a widely published analyst and commentator on Asia and has written a number of books dealing with China's pre-1949 history and Asian politics and current affairs. His previous books include a history of North Korea, a biography of Shanghai ad man and adventurer Carl Crow, and a history of foreign correspondents in China. Paul was awarded the 2013 Edgar for best fact crime for his international best-seller Midnight in Peking.
'An admirably clear and calm survey of one of the hardest countries in the world to report on.'
The Guardian
'Highly readable ... a solid overview of the country’s modern history and how it became a failed state.'
Wall Street Journal
'Fascinating ... highly readable.'
Daily Telegraph
'An excellent introduction to the history and politics of North Korea.'
Hyeonseo Lee, North Korean defector
'Paul French writes with wit, eloquence and rare clarity about the complicated history of North Korea.'
Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea
'If much reporting on North Korea is hysterical, French has gone the other way ... [a book] written with a brisk confidence.'
Financial Times
`This is the most accessible starting point for anyone wanting to understand the hermit kingdom.'
Kerry Brown, professor and director, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney
'This clear-eyed overview to North Korea’s modern history is packed full of fascinating detail.'
Louisa Lim, Beijing correspondent, NPR
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Cover | Front cover | ||
| Asian Arguments | iii | ||
| About the Author | iv | ||
| Title Page | v | ||
| Copyright | vi | ||
| Contents | vii | ||
| Foreword: The Myth and the Reality of the State of Paranoia | ix | ||
| Acknowledgements | xii | ||
| Abbreviations, Spellings and Figures | xiv | ||
| A Note on Spellings and Names | xvii | ||
| A Note on Figures | xviii | ||
| Introduction: The Paranoid Peninsula | 1 | ||
| Observers of Planet Pyongyang | 3 | ||
| Tentative Reform | 5 | ||
| The Problem of the Command Economy | 6 | ||
| North Korea: Paranoid Peninsula | 9 | ||
| Part I: The Juche Nation: Beloved Leaders, Brilliant Thoughts, Power Cuts and Empty Shelves | 13 | ||
| 1: A Normal Day in Pyongyang | 15 | ||
| Pyongyang: Capital of Our Revolution | 15 | ||
| A Roof Over Your Head | 18 | ||
| Badges, Bicycles and Fashions | 21 | ||
| Looking for the Rush Hour | 26 | ||
| Shopping | 27 | ||
| Work and School | 29 | ||
| Love, Marriage and Fun | 32 | ||
| Living in the Land of Perfect Bliss | 40 | ||
| 2: The Juche State: Political Theory in North Korea | 45 | ||
| The Politics of Self-Reliance | 45 | ||
| A Creative Application of Marxism–Leninism | 48 | ||
| Selective Borrowings from Maoism | 52 | ||
| Confucianism: Tapping into Traditional Thinking | 57 | ||
| Underpinnings of Korean Nationalism and Traditionalism | 60 | ||
| The architects of Juche | 64 | ||
| ‘Original, Brilliant and Revolutionary’? | 68 | ||
| The Contradictions of Self-Reliance | 70 | ||
| 3: The Revolutionary Dynasty: Leadership in North Korea | 72 | ||
| Birth of a Personality Cult | 72 | ||
| From Guerrilla Leader to Leader of a Nation | 76 | ||
| Consolidation and Dominance | 80 | ||
| The Undisputed Great Leader | 84 | ||
| The Successor and Dear Leader | 86 | ||
| ‘Expect No Change from Me’ | 92 | ||
| Tiger Father, Dog Son | 97 | ||
| The Lodestar of the Twenty-First Century | 99 | ||
| Part II: The Economics of North Korea: Chollima, Speed Battles, Collapse and Famine | 103 | ||
| 4: Economics Pyongyang Style: Command and Control | 105 | ||
| The Possibility of Perestroika, the Impossibility of Glasnost | 105 | ||
| The Chollima Spirit | 108 | ||
| The Great Leap Outward | 113 | ||
| The Impregnable Fortress of Socialism | 117 | ||
| The Industrial Crown Jewels | 121 | ||
| The Lack of Investment | 125 | ||
| The Doublethink on Foreign Trade | 128 | ||
| From Subsidy Junkie to Ailing Economy | 130 | ||
| Palaces Galore But No Socks | 133 | ||
| The Economy Shows Its Cracks | 135 | ||
| The Arduous March Begins | 142 | ||
| The Energy Crisis: Grinding to a Halt | 147 | ||
| The Two-Track Survival Economy | 151 | ||
| The DPRK as an Aid Economy | 156 | ||
| The Command Economy Remains Firmly in Place | 163 | ||
| 5: The Worst of Times: Food, Famine and the Arduous March | 168 | ||
| From Riches to Rags | 168 | ||
| The Collective Agricultural Disaster | 170 | ||
| ‘Slow Motion Famine’ | 178 | ||
| Attempts to Resolve the Agricultural Crisis | 183 | ||
| Dying in Silence | 189 | ||
| Solving the Shortages | 192 | ||
| The End of the Arduous March | 194 | ||
| 6: The Start of a Sort of Reform: Change and Regime Survival | 203 | ||
| Open Windows Attract Flies | 203 | ||
| Perestroika à la Pyongyang | 204 | ||
| Wages and Pricing Reforms | 206 | ||
| Jettisoning the Ration | 208 | ||
| The Role of Farmers’ Markets | 213 | ||
| Reaching Under the Mattress | 219 | ||
| Chinese and Russian Reform Precedents | 221 | ||
| Pyongyang’s Twilight Economy | 227 | ||
| A Fishing Rod of Temptation | 232 | ||
| Reform or Die | 237 | ||
| 7: The Reality of Reform: a Case Study of Sinuiju | 246 | ||
| Caged Investment | 246 | ||
| Sinuiju is Announced | 247 | ||
| The Orchid Grower Comes to Town | 253 | ||
| Greenhouses from Shenyang to Pyongyang | 257 | ||
| What Kind of Zone was Sinuiju to Be? | 261 | ||
| The Departure of the Orchid Grower | 264 | ||
| Sinuiju’s Confusing Message | 268 | ||
| Part III: Diplomacy and the Military: Foreign Relations, Nuclear Crisis and Self-defence | 271 | ||
| 8: Don’t Poke the Snake: US–DPRK Relations | 273 | ||
| The Eternal Afterthought | 273 | ||
| Nixon as Catalyst | 275 | ||
| Ford, Carter and Kim | 277 | ||
| The Reagan and Bush Years | 285 | ||
| New Potential: Clinton Engages | 292 | ||
| The 1994 Agreed Framework | 297 | ||
| Bush II: Dialogue or War? | 303 | ||
| A Useful Whipping Boy | 306 | ||
| 9: Nuclear Ambitions Revealed: Bluster, Brinkmanship or Battle? | 308 | ||
| Whispered Admissions in Pyongyang | 308 | ||
| Beijing’s Facilitating Role | 313 | ||
| Enrichment Brinksmanship | 315 | ||
| 10: ‘Military First’ Emerges | 319 | ||
| North Korea’s Third Estate | 319 | ||
| ‘Fighting Invasion to the Last’ | 323 | ||
| North Korea’s Armed Forces: An Unknown Quantity | 325 | ||
| The Sword of the Revolution | 327 | ||
| The Nuclear Bargaining Chip | 332 | ||
| The Porcupine Strategy | 338 | ||
| Part IV: Change, Collapse and Reunification | 343 | ||
| 11: One Korea: The Dream of Reunification | 345 | ||
| Is Reunification Inevitable? | 345 | ||
| A Brief History of Korean Unification | 347 | ||
| A Flurry of Engagement | 350 | ||
| Stalemates, Assassination and Entrenchment | 354 | ||
| Renewed Engagement and Terrorism | 356 | ||
| Floods, Decline and Economic Talks | 359 | ||
| Democracy Flourishes, the North Feels Isolated | 360 | ||
| Nordpolitik, Unification and Eastern Bloc Collapse | 362 | ||
| A New Geopolitical Reality | 365 | ||
| Terminal Decline in Pyongyang, Financial Crisis in Seoul | 368 | ||
| Kim Dae-Jung and the Sunshine Policy | 369 | ||
| Sunshine Departs | 372 | ||
| The German Example | 374 | ||
| A Less Paranoid Peninsula? | 378 | ||
| 12: Kim 3: The Dynasty Continues | 381 | ||
| A Death in Pyongyang | 381 | ||
| Will the Next Kim Please Step Forward | 384 | ||
| A New Type of Cult | 385 | ||
| 13: How Will the Story End? | 389 | ||
| The Predicted Collapse | 389 | ||
| The Mass Exodus Strategy | 391 | ||
| Blowing Down a Paper Tiger | 395 | ||
| Military Takeover | 401 | ||
| The Poisoned Carrot | 404 | ||
| The End Remains Elusive | 408 | ||
| Conclusion Still the World’s Most Dangerous Tripwire | 410 | ||
| Survival and Change | 410 | ||
| Risks, Possibilities and Stagnation | 419 | ||
| Notes | 425 | ||
| Bibliography | 451 | ||
| Index | 458 | ||
| Back Cover | Back cover |