North Korea Confidential

February 9, 2015
Despite impressive credentials, Pearson and Tudor, respectively the Seoul correspondent at Reuters and the Economist’s former Korea correspondent, disappoint with this look inside a mystery-shrouded country. Their choice to focus on how the average North Korean lives, and how the strict government regulations play out in reality, sounds promising. But the authors assume that the lay reader will have more knowledge about the totalitarian regime and its ambitions than is likely, and, strangely, they do not open with an overview of the country’s national and international politics. Better editing would have helped; some footnotes, such as one on the former president of Sierra Leone, contain distractingly irrelevant trivia, while others contain crucial information, such as about North Korea’s nuclear program, or how government employees can pay a monthly fee to be excused from work and “engage in private business.” Given the heightened interest in the country after the controversy surrounding the movie The Interview, this book comes across as a missed opportunity to examine North Korea from a different perspective.

Starred review from April 15, 2015

Rather than describing a gray, economically stagnant, and totalitarian society dominated by dictator Kim Jong Un, veteran journalists and coauthors Tudor and Pearson paint a vivid portrait of how North Korea functions by opportunistic entrepreneurism abetted by bribery. After the North Korean economy and government failed in the 1990s, most of the population, from ordinary citizens to upper-level bureaucrats, survived by hustling--buying, selling, and stealing from the government--beneath the illusion of dictatorial control. To own many consumer products all one needs is foreign currency, such as the Chinese yuan. Bribes will solve most problems, except political challenges to the Kim regime. That, the authors recognize, is extremely dangerous and results in incarceration in the very large and very brutal North Korean penal system. Opportunity and self-reliance characterize the North Korea that Tudor and Pearson portray, an economy and society functioning unofficially beneath the facade of Kim Jong Un's protection racket. Having survived the 1990s collapse, the fall of the Soviet Union, and by adapting to this unauthorized and thriving economy, the North Korean regime has shown a remarkable ability to survive, and the authors expect it will continue to be resilient. VERDICT Documented through extensive travel in the country and interviews with North Korean defectors, this important book will appeal to anyone interested in Korean and East Asian affairs.--Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

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