Kim Il-song's North Korea:
Author: Helen-Louise Hunter
List Price: $72.95
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ISBN: 0275962962
Publisher: Praeger Publishers (30 April, 1999)
Sales Rank: 153,926
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 2 out of 5
Misleading and very limited
A book strictly for North Korea specialists. Certainly, as its reviews and the book-cover blurbs indicate a "unique" study. However what none of them say is; (1) this is strictly a basic socio-economic or sociology-type study; and (2) most tellingly, it may well be "a recently declassified CIA study", but what they are not saying is that this study was written in 1980-81 and not updated for a 1999-2000 book publication release. It is a study written in 1980 and is thereby utilising 1970s material. In consequence we have a book about Kim Il-Sung's North Korea of the 1970s. We are reading about conditions in the North Korea of 25+ years ago.Material content and style presentation is straightforward and "just the facts". Nothing laid out in this book will surprise anyone who is familiar with Communist bloc social control systems. There is no analysis or extrapolation worth mentioning from the socio-economic presentation. Key aspects even within that range e.g. Party-Army-Population relationships are not examined in any analytical way.
This is a quite specific piece set in a quite specific time frame. It is a read only for those with real interest in North Korea. It is, at best, a "background" information source. As one reviewer has alluded to, the only real purpose of any description of conditions and life in the North Korea of the 1970s, is to give us an indication of the seeds of the mismanagement and decline that has subsequently unfolded. The same mixture of issues that have brought down, principally from within, other Communist regimes, in this case merely with a particular North Korean spin to it.
Thus as a book - a very particular snapshot. In its own right, as well as in terms of content.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Great book that provides much insight
These authors really did excellent research and they take the attentive reader behind the closed borders of North Korea. It is one of the last countries on earth that doesn't have diplomatic relations with the U.S. In this book the reader will experience the harsh reality of a poverty-striken country that happens to be the largest weapons exporter in the region. Another book that I highly recommend which is also based on a recent declassified CIA report and which discusses North Korea's secret but aggressive nuclear weapons program is the thriller THE CONSULTANT by Alec Donzi.
Rating: 4 out of 5
a fascinating account
This book is a fascinating account of North Korea under Kim Il-sung. I learned many things, such as his emphasis on the family. The trouble with this book is that we do not know if it describes North Korea today, or just North Korea in the past. But the description is fascinating.
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