Larry Zellers, a newly married Methodist minister serving as a missionary and teacher in a small South Korean town near the 38th parallel, was taken prisoner in the early days of the Korean War. He and his fellow prisoners were American combat soldiers who were the very first to arrive in Korea from bases in Japan. The youngest among them had received only minimal combat training. All of the mean were inadequately trained and furnished with sometimes malfunctioning weapons. After being taken prisoner by the North Koreans, the men suffered incredible hardships of cold, hunger, physical abuse, lack of medical attention, fatigue, fear isolation, and intimidation. In Enemy Hands is Zellers' first-hand story of his captivity from June 25, 1950 to his release in 1953. Throughout his personal account Zellers shows that, despite the opinion that POWs live only for themselves, many in the camps worked to help others and conducted themselves with honor. Zellers became a U.S. Air Force chaplain after his release. In Enemy Hands is a valued, important, biographical contribution to the growing body of Korean War literature and a much appreciated contribution to any academic, public library military history collection.

This book deserves attention for various reasons. First, it is a rare European contribution to the study of Japanese foreign and security policies. Second, it gives a truly well informed overview of contemporary Japanese foreign policy, especially towards North Korea. Third, it makes an original and thought-provoking attempt to distance itself from the largely intuitive way of dealing with Japanese politics that still dominates the discourse. Or rather, this is politico-scientific analysis, whereas the study of Japanese foreign policy usually has been the realm of the often significantly less theoretically informed 'Japanese studies.' Hughes in fact makes such central political concepts as 'power' and 'security' his foremost tools of analysis. I have expressed some objections against his definitions and applications of the concept of power elsewhere, but since I believe that we need more - not less - power analyses of Japanese foreign policy, on the whole, I am very sympathetic with his overall approach. Fourth, and most importantly, the book poses very relevant questions about Japanese power. Realists and liberals have for many years disputed what Japan's future role in the international system would be. Liberals like e.g. Richard Rosecrace have then considered Japanese pacifism as the natural consequence of human rationalism, whereas realists like Kenneth Waltz have asserted that Japan's economic power will undoubtedly be translated into proportional political military power. Hughes presents very careful and knowledgeable analyses of his empirical material that are no doubt relevant in the context of this dispute:

First he finds that after WWII ideas about an economic security policy have been totally dominant in Japan, but interestingly also that in the wake of the Cold War more 'traditional' ideas about a necessary military basis for security policy, have become increasingly influential in Japan. Paradoxically, this tendency seems to be going in the opposite direction in most other parts of the world. He then shows that policymakers in the Asia-Pacific region seem to acknowledge that the North Korean military security problems largely have economic causes and that they should be solved with economic means, i.e. a 'soft landing'. Hughes draws the conclusion that Japan would have sufficient economic capacity in absolute terms as well as in the relations to North Korea to influence the country to do a soft landing, but also that "Japan's economic power capacity for security purposes remains latent and under-utilised" in this respect. He goes on to ask why Japan has failed to mobilize its economic resources. Looking at different groups of policymakers, in short he draws the conclusion that there have been too many risks and too few chances associated with a positive engagement for North Korea in Japan. Instead, and this is one of the most conspicuous conclusions of his book, Hughes finds that unlike the general trend in the international society, Japan has chosen to emphasize military aspects in its security policy towards North Korea. He also argues persuasively that it has used mainly military policy instruments vis-à-vis the country. This very central conclusion that Hughes draws from his analysis therefore makes him take side in the dispute between liberals and realists about Japanese power referred to above: "North Korean security problem is actually more likely to serve as the occasion for Japan's emergence as a global military power, rather than a civilian power." This conclusion is rather provoking for most of us, and it should be even more so in most circles in Japan. However, unlike a majority of those who speak about the re-emergence of Japanese military power, Hughes is neither part of the PRC propaganda machinery, nor does he seem to have any theoretical bias for this conclusion. This book is, in other words, evidence enough that careful empirical analysis, departing from interesting questions, is actually enough to let social scientists draw controversial and important conclusions about the world.

This book was very informative and useful to understand public adminsitration in South Korea as well as government affairs in North Korea. Only limited resources are available on Korean public administraiton in English. Thus this book provides well articulated insights on various issues such as administrative culture, representative bureaucracy and regionalism, women employment in government, civil service reform, organizaional change and development, morale and motivation, and government reform. It will be useful for graduate courses such as comparative administration, Asian management, and comparative politics. I strongly recommend it for graduate couseworks and advanced researches on Asian public administration.

How to negotiate with North Korea is a big issue these days.
To persuade the communists Americans should understand them first before simply threaten them. How much US deligaes know about North Korea?
The author published this just in time. He is very well qualified to write this book. For Americans negotiation means how to compromise and get the mutual benefits but for North Koreans it means how to win and get everything they want.
A wonderful book written out of experiences.

For anyone wanting a comprehensive overview of North Korea and the information that makes this reclusive state tick, you don't want to miss this book. An invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in East Asia or doing business in this part of the world. It includes everything you'll ever need to know.

I met Dr. Park on Air Koryo leaving Pyongyang in May '97 after my 10th trip there. Reading this compilation has been a delightful continuation of that meeting. His insights to the philosophical foundation of Juche, the Kimilsungist system of political thought, are particularly useful and his no-bones-about-it discussion of the nuclear weapons program is eerily unsettling. All of the authors speak Korean and have visited North Korea, lending an authenticity I have found to be rare

I don't know hardly anything about the politics of Koreas but recent North Korean crisis motivated me to read this book and find out more about what is going on. The book is not boring, it is very interesting. What amazed me was the amount of manipulation, planning, deception that is involved in the world of politics. And what amazed me even more was when I realized that this is the way the world politics works. I didn't realized that we were at a brink of a nuclear event in the mid 1990's when I was happily pursuing my goals. I guess sometimes, ignorance is bliss! This book is written by a newspaper columnist and is his understanding of what has happened in the Korean peninsula while he was covering the political events. It is easy to read and understand unlike some of the other political science book. I would recommend this book to anybody who has any interest in politics, especially regarding the two Koreas. I would have given it 5 stars but I was dissappointed with the concluding chapter of the book.

If you ever wanted to get inside North Korea, then this book provides excellent insight and a revealing study of that totalitarian regime. After reading this informative book you'll know why North Korea is probably the most dangerous threat to world peace. ...

I bought this book based on my satisfaction with Oberdorfer's outstanding book, TET, which I read many years ago.

THE TWO KOREAS is mainly a political history of the two Koreas since 1972. He begins with a broad and basic overview of Korea's history, and the absurd way in which the country came to be partitioned at the end of WWII. The main story line begins in 1972, with the origins of communications between the two Koreas, and continues up through 1996.

Although the focus is political developments in the conflict between the two Koreas, economic and social elements are added to contrast their respective development over time. The word that comes to mind when contemplating North Korea is "bizarre".

The most interesting theme is on North Koreas' drift to aquiring nuclear weapons, and the factors that prompted it. Interestingly, South Korea had pursued the development of nuclear weapons in the 1970's, but that effort was stopped by the United States. Later, North Korea began nuclear development which lead to the situation we find ourselves in today (2002), with North Korea admitting it has nuclear weapons.

Readable, relevant, interesting, and insightful, this is an excellent start to understanding how the two Koreas came to be, and while the story ends with 1996, it isn't difficult to understand how North Korea eventually came to have nuclear weapons.

Those looking for scholarly analysis and major footnotes will not find them. However, the book does have fascinating accounts of the major player's actions and thinking, and first person sources that only a journalist will have. Those sources add personal insight and current perspective to the issues discussed.

This book is well worth the money and effort.

Other reviewers have already noted the importance of this book in documenting the pervasive pattern and Kafkaesque quality of human rights violations in North Korea, so I shall concentrate instead on what other help this book offers for penetrating the veil of secrecy in which P'yongyang wraps itself.

In the past decade or so, there has been an explosion of Western interest in North Korea that has contributed substantially to a better understanding of P'yongyang's policy priorities and problems. Of particular note in this regard are two publications: "North Korea: Through the Looking Glass," an elegant and balanced study published by the Brookings Institute, and "Kim Il-song's North Korea," which presents the meticulously- detailed research undertaken by Helen Louise Hunter while she was still with the CIA. Both of these publications benefitted from the exploitation of defector information, but their homogenized findings still lack a sense of ground truth, and it is in this regards that Kang Chol-hwan's account of his life in North Korea is so valuable apart from its obvious importance on the human rights front.

"Aquariums of Pyongyang" provides a considerable body of anecdotal information that documents several trends which, North Korean government pronouncements make clear, are of increasing concern to the central government. These trends are rising hooliganism, especially on the part of youth gangs; rampant corruption and bribery in nearly all sectors of society; and a surprising underground use of currency (not always North Korean) in an economy that has traditionally been described as non-monetarized. Neither collectively nor individually are these trends underwriting an organized opposition, but they have substantially eroded both government control of the citizenry and public faith in the regime's relevancy and attractiveness. Also answered by "Aquariums of Pyongyang" are such questions as what happens to the goods and cash that the Japanese send to relatives in North Korea; how North Koreans manage escapes to China; and how the lives of the privileged few differ from those of the multitudes. "Aquariums" is especially well-paired with Hunter's book, which defines the vocabulary of everyday life in North Korea.

"Aquariums in Pyongyang" is an incredible story of survival and triumph over evil and hardship. Kang chol-Hawn was an upper middle class child of idealistic Koreans living in Japan when his parents returned to the North Korean "Workers Paradise" that was in the making of North Korea of the early 1960's. The reality of course, they soon discovered, was far from the communist propaganda that his mother was so taking in by. By the age of nine Kang was sent to a gulag and in it he endured all that one would expext from a communist gulag, beatings, starvation, hard labor, communist propaganda and brain washing. Not many people survived ten years in a North Korean gulag fewer still managed to later escape to the west or in Kang's case South Korea. None before have written a book about such experiences and that makes "Aquariums in Pyongyang" a unique book. One of the amazing things about this book aside from the story it's self is that Kang manages to not only detail the horror but also display quite a bit of humor albeit largely sacastic humor such as a chapter titled "ten years in the camp: thank you, Kim Il Sung" Another chapter entitled Biweekly Criticism and self-criticism is filled with sacastic humor that can make you laugh out loud even if you feel a little guilty doing so knowing the suffering of the gulags prisonors. Aquariums is a excellent book that will challage your views of North Korea no matter what your political views are. an excellent read definitly reccomended

"The Aquariums of Pyongyang" by Kang Chol-Hwan is a great book even if you have no specific interest in Korea. The book's universal appeal is its story of a person who survives a disastrous early life to escape by guile and fortitude to a better world he wasn't even sure existed.

Kang also provides a rare view inside the most secretive society of the contemporary era. He reveals a North Korea [DPRK] that is more accurately described as a criminal conspiracy rather than the most pure communist state in history. Communism serves as more a pseudo-religious enabling device for Kim Il-Song, his successor Kim Jong-Il, and their henchmen in this hyper-fascist state. To this end, communism worked better than the old style Hitler/Mussolini fascism if you were at the top. For the masses either system was a catastrophe. Kang provides vast evidence of this. Kang is also proof positive that the people of the North are not purely the brainwashed victims of communism that the rest of us have been led to believe.

The DPRK will go down in history as serving no useful purpose other than as a warning of the depths of depravity people are capable of, [while most of the world looks the other way].

Other reviewers note similarities to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" [a.k.a. the literary tombstone of the USSR] and I agree. I add, and recommend, "MiG Pilot" by John Barron & "Anthem" by Ayn Rand as related books. "MiG Pilot" tells the true story of another disenchanted communist, Viktor Belenko. "Anthem" is more a nightmare version of a pure-communist future society. The struggles and ultimate personal victories portrayed in "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" and "MiG Pilot" may prevent the rest of us from living in the world of "Anthem".

Winston Churchill described the Soviet Union as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma," but then again, unlike Marcus Noland, Churchill never visited North Korea.

South Korea has risen from the ashes of the war to become a modern country. North Korea faces a famine. (My church and many others are involved in famine relief there.) If the North Koreans opened up their system they could catch up with South Korea -- afterall, they are all Koreans. As it is, they rely on selling missiles to countries like Pakistan, worsening the Pakistani confrontation with India, and creating headaches for the US and other countries.

This book examines this geopolitical hot spot. It analyzes the missile and nuclear issue, the famine, and the financial crisis in South Korea. It then considers three scenarios for the future of the Korean peninsula. The economics can get a bit heavy going, but it is not difficult to follow the thread of the argument. This book is particularly good on the issue of how developments in the North could affect political and economic developments in the South. It would behoove President Bush and his advisors to read this book.

By drawing on other-country parallels such as German unification, or the experiences of China and Vietnam as they re-engaged with the world community, "Avoiding the Apocalypse" provides interesting insights about N. Korea's future and the possible implications for the South. This book is unique among other N. Korea titles in that it is underpinned by rigorous economic analysis while, at the same time, exhibiting a sound understanding of geopolitical dynamics of the peninsula and of the interests of key player countries (S. Korea, Japan, US, China). The book presents a comprehensive analysis of N. Korea's economy and policies (past and present), and an assessment of future prospects for the Korea peninsula in light of several plausible alternative scenarios of policy developments in the North.

"Avoiding the Apocalypse" contains a wealth and depth of information Mr. Noland has obviously acquired through his research and interactions with key economic, political and military personalities in North and South Korea, Japan, the US and China. I found this book to be very well written, and in a style accessible to a general educated readership. Unusually for such a weighty book, the text includes cross-cultural sayings (i.e. proverbs) and metaphors, in addition to insider quotes, that make the book an interesting read indeed.

I recommend the book highly for anyone interested in a thorough review of N. Korea and in knowing what the current state of play is as regards N. Korea's integration into the world community of nations. If you're interested in a fresh and intellectually stimulating perspective on the events unfolding on the Korean peninsula, this is also the book for you.

This book is a delight - the author combines serious economic and political analysis with rich knowledge of institutions and history on the Korean peninsula. Moreover, he knows how to write. He makes sophisticated arguments seem easy. For readers concerned with the future of South and North Korea, this is essential reading.

The book consists of a thorough overview of the current situation on the peninsula with a brief but insightful review of the historical processes that have brought us to this point. It distills in a accessible manner the vital insights from the author's formal models of the Korean economy. Most importantly, it weaves all of these different viewpoints into a coherent and persuasive story.

Seldom does a reader get the opportunity to read a true account of modern battle that is so gripping, so detailed, and so unforgettable as is this story of the attempt by 12,000 American Marines to fight their way out of an encirclement by seven divisions of Chinese and Korean troops at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea. Written by an ex-Marine who was himself a wounded veteran in Korea, its lines wring of the accuracy and poignancy only eyewitnesses could tell about the plight of the men caught in the snow, wind, and sub-zero cold to fight off the vastly superior number of Chinese and Koreans and escape from the trap that had been set for them. This is a riveting story well told.

The situation was bleak; it was mid-winter, and the Marines were cut off from supply lines and exposed to the extremes of weather, surrounded by seven divisions of better equipped and better situated Chinese and Korean troops who were most fanatical in their pursuit of them, ready to move in and annihilate the whole Marine force. The Marines, meanwhile, had little or no air support due to the terrible weather conditions, were relatively low on ammunition and other supplies, and the terrain was so formidable that they were quite effectively cut off and isolated and on their own. There could be little or no help from outside to save them.

Yet through all these obstacles and with the numbers so much against them, the Marines slowly but methodically fought their way out, hill by hill, bluff by bluff, regiment to regiment, battalion to battalion, company to company, whatever it took to inflict such terrible casualties on the Chinese and Koreans as they went, as they fought, from Division level all the way down to small groups of 3 or 4 men fighting with unvarnished tenacity to kick ............... out of the opposing force through sheer guts, grit, and courage.

This is a tale that will long be told in beer halls and at all Marine functions with pride and enthusiasm, for it is truly one of the finest moments for the Marines in modern combat, detailed here with such verve in the words and recollections of many who fought there. The reader feels like a member of the force as he reads through stirring accounts of men who just would not surrender, retreat, or desert their friends and buddies, who instead fought back with sustained vitality and surprising tenacity under the worst conditions imaginable. This was a fighting force that single-handedly destroyed seven opposing Divisions of enemy forces to walk out of the Chosin Reservoir under their own power, through the crucible of combat, and out the other side to a victory so memorable it will love forever wherever Marines gather. Read it and understand. Enjoy!

Breakout: The Chosin reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950 - Fromm InternationalIf you read only one book this year about men at war, let it be this oneYou will read of the men of the 1st Marine Division and their fight out of the trap set for them by 7 divisions of Chinese whose sole mission was the extermination of the Marines.You will read of the men of the 1st Marine Division and a small commando of British RoyalMarines fighting in incredibly difficult terrainand in flesh-killing cold, cold so deep and bitterthat weapons froze and exposed flesh turnedleper-white with frostbite.You will read how the Division fought, regiment by regiment, battalion by battalion, company by company, platoon by platoon and, finally, in smallgroups of 3 and 4 to repulse and win through attack after attack by a sea of tough, seasoned Chinese troops.You will read of individual acts of simple but great heroism and fidelity, for the men who fought in those frozen wastes remained faithful to one-another and their unit and their Corps.And throughout it all you will hear the voices of the men Russ interviewed and set down in their personal narratives, which he seamlessly wove together with his superb exposition. And always they speak simply of the extraordinary events in which they took part when they were young and slim and quick, events which remain fresh and immediate after almost 50 years. And they speak in the rhythms and accents of Americans from every region - from the barrios of Los Angeles to the privileged precincts of Westchester County.And, at the end, you will feel joy and pride as they stride out of the trap in step, marching and singing a paean of triumph, having destroyed 7 Chinese divisions and bringing out all their wounded and most of their dead. And you will weep for the dead. And you will weep for the survivors, not in pity but, perhaps, in envy for men who have lived out a personal fidelity to something larger than themselves, men who, in a paraphrase of Norman MacLean¹s words, went through, and not around the experience of combat. And you will thank Martin Russ for his craft and art in creating this superb book. - Reviewed by R.A. Clark -

"Breakout" by Martin Russ. Sub-titled: "The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea, 1950"
Almost a first person "I was there" Marine account of the surrounding of the United States Marines by the Chinese Communist Army at the Chosin Reservoir, at the border between North Korea and the People's Republic of China, in 1950. Martin Russ has written this book almost exclusively from the point of view of the ground-pounding Marine, with the general officers rarely mentioned. When Mr. Russ does mention high-ranking individuals, such as General Douglas MacArthur, it is to point out, scornfully, their mistakes and lack of leadership. Interestingly, Russ does not emphasize the role of Marine General Chesty Puller in this campaign.

This review is called "Semper Fi" as Mr. Martin sees almost everything from the USMC perspective, with a major exception (perhaps) being the U.S. Navy Medical Corpsmen who accompanied the Marines. Was the U.S. Army that bad?, "Thus, one U.S. Army unit abandoned another U.S. Army unit" p. 262. A more balanced presentation is called for, as, for example, in the efforts of Naval Air , who supported the Marines on the ground as much as Marine Air.

Overall, despite the defendable bias for the Marines, the horror and the "you are there" recounting of the swarming of the Chinese soldiers into death by guns of the Marines makes this vivid description of the Chosin campaign well worth reading.