Roll over image to zoom in
Audible sampleKindle
$14.42
Available instantly
Audiobook1 CreditAvailable instantly
Hardcover
$37.55
Paperback
$21.56
North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors
Audible Audiobook – UnabridgedDaniel Tudor (Author), & 3 more
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 634 ratings
**Named one of the best books of 2015 by The Economist**
Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors.
North Korea is one of the most troubled societies on earth. The country's 24 million people live under a violent dictatorship led by a single family, which relentlessly pursues the development of nuclear arms, which periodically incites risky military clashes with the larger, richer, liberal South, and which forces each and every person to play a role in the "theater state" even as it pays little more than lip service to the wellbeing of the overwhelming majority.
With this profoundly anachronistic system eventually failed in the 1990s, it triggered a famine that decimated the countryside and obliterated the lives of many hundreds of thousands of people. However, it also changed the lives of those who survived forever.
A lawless form of marketization came to replace the iron rice bowl of work in state companies, and the Orwellian mind control of the Korean Workers' Party was replaced for many by dreams of trade and profit. A new North Korea Society was born from the horrors of the era—one that is more susceptible to outside information than ever before with the advent of k-pop and video-carrying USB sticks. This is the North Korean society that is described in this book.
In seven fascinating chapters, the authors explore what life is actually like in modern North Korea today for the ordinary "man and woman on the street." They interview experts and tap a broad variety of sources to bring a startling new insider's view of North Korean society - from members of Pyongyang's ruling families to defectors from different periods and regions, to diplomats and NGOs with years of experience in the country, to cross-border traders from neighboring China, and textual accounts appearing in English, Korean and Chinese sources. The resulting stories reveal the horror as well as the innovation and humor which abound in this fascinating country.
Read less
©2015 Daniel Tudor & James Pearson (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved
Top reviews
Top reviews from Australia
Jan
3.0 out of 5 stars Dull and disappointingReviewed in Australia on 17 August 2020
Verified Purchase
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.
HelpfulReport
Dr J.I. Deans
2.0 out of 5 stars DisappointingReviewed in Australia on 18 April 2015
Verified Purchase
Although this came highly recommended, I was disappointed with the content and the Kindle version of the book.
The first chapter was excellent but the quality quickly declined; there was considerable repetition and the editing was sloppy. There are constant mentions of how 'everything changed after the mid-1990s famine', which makes the reader hope for an informed analysis of that event but is left unsatisfied. Instead, there are frequent digressions on South Korea which typically provide little additional understanding of the North. Some discussions are so simplistic, it reads as though the author is lecturing a small child. This all leaves a feeling that the book is padded, which is not desirable in such a short work (apparently 224 printed pages, perhaps 150 after the photos/references/etc are removed). A good editor could have easily condensed this work to <100 pages, without losing any important information. Most frustratingly, extensive footnotes are provided but many claims are unsupported. The reader is unable to discern whether a claim is based on evidence, information from defectors/insiders, or the author's own assumptions/beliefs, and it is impossible to make decisions about the content's reliability.
The Kindle version suffered from some technical errors (some sections are simply cut off, mid-sentence, with the heading for another section) and the placement of footnotes at the end of each chapter, rather than the end of the book, meant tedious scrolling through pages and the 'time left' feature was unreliable. The placement of a picture section in the middle makes sense with a physical book, where different paper must be used, but is confusing in a Kindle book, where it divides a chapter (and sentence).
Overall, I found the book overpriced (A$13) for the content and that it failed to provide an informed, insightful analysis on North Korea's marketisation.
HelpfulReport
See more reviews
Top reviews from other countries
Translate all reviews to English
Juan
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesante temáticaReviewed in Spain on 21 January 2018
Verified Purchase
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.
Report
Translate review to English
S. Warfield
5.0 out of 5 stars How North Korea is changingReviewed in the United States on 23 May 2016
Verified Purchase
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.
Read less
3 people found this helpfulReport
MarcoPolo
5.0 out of 5 stars The exciting reality behind a flat stereotypeReviewed in Germany on 9 April 2016
Verified Purchase
In the past, it was Idi Amin who beheaded the demonic in the world. Or Saddam Hussein the evil par excellence. Today, North Korea has become the global cipher for “the destructive itself”. Whenever people or states become the leading negative brand in the global business of stereotypes, it is worth taking a closer look. (By the way, also with positive stereotypes.)
In North Korea confidential, Tudor & Pearson looked closely, analytically and unexcited along the reality of life in the country. The monolith of evil quickly differentiates itself into a multi-layered entity: a fragile mixture of “power-deadlock” and interdependence between the Kim family and the OGD - the party's power complex - forms the axis of the state system that finds enough supporters because it benefits enough. The state's helplessness towards the hunger crisis in the 1990s has driven a wedge of permanent alienation between the party and the population. The state prohibits much - from listening to foreign radio stations to wearing blue jeans. But those who have (bribe) can afford a lot and buy a lot. Not many, but more and more have money in the growing layer of capitalist entrepreneurs: from well-connected privatizers of state-owned assets on a large scale to the countless who buy themselves from their workplace every day to sell USB sticks with Western films on the market.
Cliquen-governed and aggressive states such as North Korea pose challenges for the international community. Challenges that can only be overcome efficiently with close inspection and understanding. This book is a competent contribution to this. And yet another one that is highly exciting to read.
Read less
2 people found this helpfulReport
Translated from German by Amazon
See original ·Report translation
Srinivasan Thothathri
5.0 out of 5 stars Good and simple read. But some sections are purely imaginative and lack evidence or substance. But the book is written based onReviewed in India on 29 September 2015
Verified Purchase
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...
Report
R. Tudge
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a highly readable book giving a comprehensive and ...Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2015
Verified Purchase
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.
3 people found this helpfulReport
See more reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment