North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

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Daniel Tudor James Pearson

North Korea Confidential

Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

Daniel Tudor, James Pearson

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English

Tuttle
14 April 2015

History; Politics & government

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.

When this deeply 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 life forever for those who survived. 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.

By: Daniel Tudor, James Pearson
Imprint: Tuttle
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 397g
ISBN: 9780804844581
ISBN 10: 0804844585
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 14 April 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Daniel Tudor is from Manchester, England, and graduated with a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University. He has lived in Seoul, Korea for a number of years, and served as The Economist's Korea Correspondent from 2010-2013. His first book, 'Korea: The Impossible Country' received strong praise and has also been translated into Korean, Chinese, Polish, and Thai. Daniel is a regular columnist for a Korean newspaper, the Joongang Ilbo, and has commented on Korea-related topics many times for the BBC, Al Jazeera, and others. He is also co-founder of The Booth, a small chain of craft beer pubs. James Pearson holds a BA in Chinese and Korean from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a Master's of Philosophy in Oriental Studies from the University of Cambridge. He currently serves as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Seoul, where he covers politics and general news in North and South Korea.

Reviews for North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

"""North Korea Confidential gives us a deeply informed close-up. Tudor, a former correspondent for The Economist, and Pearson, a Reuters reporter, have pieced together their story from North Korean insiders, defectors, diplomats and traders, and from a careful reading of texts in English, Korean and Chinese."" --New York Times ""North Korean society is rapidly changing, affecting everything from what people watch on TV to what they sing at karaoke. With the help of a new book charting daily life we see if you've been paying attention."" --The Guardian ""North Korea Confidential, by James Pearson and Daniel Tudor, says that nearly all North Koreans lead a 'double economic life,' supplementing measly rations and puny state wages of as little as $1 a month with extra work in their spare time."" --The Economist"