This books offers a balanced and pragmatic introduction into the internatinal negotiating policies of the magical race of people the North Koreans. This comprehensive analysis of this mysitcal populations' aggressive nuclear bargaining tactics is super.

A balanced and pragmatic analysis of North Korean negotiating perceptions and behavior, Snyder's book will be one of the most significant and useful studies of North Korea for years. His study ranges at all levels, thus we see analyses of both negotiating tactics as well as the cultural and psychological perceptions that inform those tactics. This book is highly recommended for anyone who wants a glimpse into North Korean decision making and thought, not just how they negotiate. The quasi-self-contained world of North Korea has generated a psychological perspective and mindframe that has its own internal rules of logic and acceptibility. An understanding of that world, and taking advantage of its contradictions and absurdities, is what makes this book all the more valuable.

Policymakers, diplomats, media, scholars, and students will all find this a useful and informative tool. Snyder's well-written presentation of the unique mindset of North Korean actors helps us understand their motivations and behaviors beyond the "irrational and reclusive" mantra of years gone by.

South Korea, the United States and other countries have embarked on negotiations with North Korea. It is important to understand North Korea. Mr. Snyder's book is excellent at describing North Korean negotiating behavior, and the origins of their attitudes being Confucsian and communist.

As a professional colleague once said about another author, he got the story right but the facts wrong.

This is a difficult book to evaluate. It basically gets the story of the North Korean famine right, but it is misleading or wrong in many of the specifics, starting with the first sentence of the book "In September 1995 the North Korean government, in a rare admission of vulnerability announced to the outside world that severe flooding had devastated its agricultural regions and that subsequent failure had caused widespread food shortages." Narrowly true, perhaps - the government of North Korea may well have made such a statement in September 1995 - but thoroughly misleading. The government of North Korea had publicly admitted it had food shortages and successfully reached agreements with Japan and South Korea to supply emergency food aid in May 1995 - before the floods hit in June. So unless time moves backwards on the Korean peninsula, floods in June could not be the cause of agreements reached in May. As evidenced by the September statement that Natsios uses to begin the book, the flooding proved politically useful to both the North Koreans (the famine was an act of God and not a combination of their own incompetence and malevolence) and to the donor community (easier to supply aid in response to victims of natural disasters than victims of a thoroughly odious regime).

Much of this book is built on such half-truths. In part, this is due to its author's intended or inadvertent tendency to place himself at the center of all events. This gives the book a certain strength: the first-hand accounts -- I visited this orphanage on this date and this is what I observed -- are compelling. But either Natsios is disturbingly self-promoting or simply doesn't know what he is talking about. Time and time again, he makes false claims that he was the first (or the only) participant to see or understand some aspect of the famine. For example, in chapter 4 he makes much of his June 1998 trip to the Chinese border region and interviews with North Koreans refugees there. Not for another 150 pages does he mention in passing that his own colleague at the US Institute for Peace, Scott Snyder, had done the same border trip, interviewed the same refugees, and published a report on this a year earlier. To cite another example, the following chapter argues that no one except Natsios and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen understood that famines are economic phenomenon, and as a consequence everyone misread what was occurring in North Korea. Problem is, two economists, Marcus Noland, a Korea specialist associated with the Institution for International Economics, and Sherman Robinson, an agricultural economist affiliated with the International Food Policy Research Institute, had read their Sen, understood the economic basis of famines, and had produced an economic analysis of the North Korean famine, similar to the one that Natsios lays out in this book, in 1998. Indeed, as in the case of Snyder, Noland and Robinson's work is listed in the reference list - so Natsios clearly new of its existence - though oddly it is never mentioned in the text. I could go on. Individuals are misidentified, private informal emails are quoted as "trip reports" etc.

It is unfortunate that this book is so error-filled, since it is unlikely that another comprehensive account of the North Korean famine will be produced in the near future. Moreover, Natsios has been appointed director of the US Agency for International Development, so his view on these issues counts. But while he got the broad outlines of the story right, he is wrong on many specifics, and one should not regard this book as the final authority on the North Korean famine.

I am very impressed with the new USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios's book "The Great North Korean Famine." If you are a student of famine or interested in what is happening in North Korea, you should read this book. A book like this is hard to come by because information from North Korea is so limited. Gathered and compiled diligently, this is a very well written account of causes and conditions of famine in North Korea that may have killed as many as a couple of million or more people, about 10 percent of the population.

According to the Nobel winning author/economist Amartya Sen (whose book on right-based development I have just read recently), no democratic government has ever let famine happen. Famine is preventable if the government cares about its people.

You should read this book if you are interested in North Korea or on the politics of famine.

The Great North Korean Famine: Famine, Politics, And Foreign Policy by Andrew Natsios (administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development) is an erudite, well-researched and compelling examination of the famine crisis in North Korea; its roots, its politics, its economics, and its bitter consequences. Straightforward narration renders college-level international problems in terminology the lay reader can easily understand. An appendix includes an op-ed piece by the author, succinctly titled "Feed North Korea: Don't Play Politics with Hunger." A powerful, eye-opening, highly recommended study, The Great North Korean Famine is also available in hardcover (192922334X, $42.50).

Since I've recently been very interested in North Korea I bought this book as part of my own informal research. It is a very fast read and is mostly a series of horrific anecdotes; it concludes with the author adopting Christianity (which somehow seems to provide divine justification and compensation in the author's eyes for her years of misery). I *DO* acknowledge and understand the very real and *incredible* suffering of 100,000's of North Korean prisoners but this book seems rife with what can only be characterized as exaggeration and embellishment. Situations that are described are often reduced to stereotypical morality plays: the author endures trials that would fell a titan, surviving them with horrible and permanent bodily injuries that frequently seem to vanish by the next chapter. She cites knocked out teeth, numerous experiences of being partially paralyzed and lamed by injurious punishments, and apparently countless episodes of being knocked unconscious, but seems to repeatedly recuperate totally. The book's pencil sketches of the author during her imprisonment generally portray a spry visage that is inconsistent with the text. I have NO doubts that countless innocent victims DO suffer and die in North Korean prisons but the cause of exposing this situation and bringing that government to justice is not promoted by embellishment that can't help but call into question the credibility of the underlying situation. I say as kindly as I can that I can't help but wonder if such exaggeration isn't somehow cultural -- the curious can find laughably extreme rhetoric in the stories posted by the offical North Korean news agency (...); their own words speak terrifying volumes. I generally liked this book, but the reader is advised to bring a skeptical eye for the author's specific tales while at the same time hopefully absorbing the underlying tragic saga that is today's North Korea.

You know, I read this book thinking wow, this must have been written way back in the post-war era. And as I read further and further, with tears welling up from the pain, I realized it wasn't post-war at all. It was modern. It was happening during the years I lived in South Korea. Soon Ok Li's pain was exquisite and the scars she carries with her must be excruciating reminders of life... But as I am reading more and more of the NK stories, what amazes me most is the strengh, courage and compassion that that reign supreme in these brave souls that risk everything and lose everything, just for a chance...

This was an amazing book of an unthinkable life and I thank her for writing so frankly about her experiences, helping the world to learn a little more about the people in a country and we really don't know.

This book was the most heart-wrenching book that I have ever read. I have bought a number of copies of it to send to legislators. They need to know what is happening in North Korea. I am a pacifist and do not believe in war generally or usually support the use of force to solve problems. But when I read this book, my opinion changed about North Korea. We, the human race, the US, the UN, or whatever, need to go in there and stop what is happening NOW... Read the accounts directly.. And cry.. you will need to cry... Buy this book, but dont read it less than four or five hours before you go to bed.. you wont be able to sleep. Not for children!

I was so moved by Ms. Lee's testimony that I have been writing letters to lawmakers here in the US about it. You should too...

I really enjoyed this book. It is really the only book that authoritatively covers this topic. The book's sections on the different SF organizations in the DPRK are based on solid evidence. Some of the information seemed to me to be quite old (from the 60's), but nevertheless is convincing and still relevant considering that the DPRK seems to still operate in many of the same ways.

It is not surprising that some of the rhetoric in the book is right-of-center. For instance, Bermudez (like most other American authors on the DPRK) likes to point out atrocities committed by 'communist' guerillas while ignoring the fact that most atrocities committed during the period of 1945-1953 were committed by the Korean National Police, Army of the Republic of Korea, and right-wing youth groups. He mentions atrocities committed by communists during the Yosu-Sunchon Rebellion, but fails to mention the utter holocaust visited upon the residents of Cheju Island by the Korean Constabulary (Army), KNP, and violent right-wing youth groups; by the way, these forces were transported to the island with US assets and advised by US military advisors in the field. Bermudez doesn't seem to be interested in really addressing what motivated the guerillas of the South, but considering the scope of this book, this is just a minor detail.

Also rather annoying were the frequent and obvious spelling and grammar issues. I don't think there was much of an editing process! Check out page 22 where Bermudez says that communist partisans were to "ferment unrest". I didn't know you COULD "ferment" unrest(!) I believe the word he was looking for was "foment". These issues with his English are frequent enough to be somewhat of an annoyance, but don't really make the book any less interesting.

One is hard-pressed to find a well-researched material on North Korea's military forces, though there are some excellent research books written by military officers in "lessons learned" formats. The North Korean special operations force, according to South Korea's Defense White Paper, poses one of the most significant military threat in the region along with P'yongyang's chemical weapons and ballistic missiles. This book traces this formidable force from its inception through the present, revealing a significant facet of North Korea's overall military strategy. Despite the timeliness of this work and the depth of its research from one of the most well-known North Korea specialist, it suffers from somewhat poor readability.

I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Bermudez as well as reading this book while researching North Korean Special Forces. The book is highly informative and the author exceptionally knowledgeable. It would be interesting to see the latest information he has gathered considering the present economic/food situations.

At time of printing, NKSF were the best special forces in the world for their set of missions. Other special forces are better suited for different missions and have different resources available to them.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for reliable background information on the specific topic, as well as anyone interested in the highly ideological and self sacrificial mentality instilled in these people.

All right all right! In cyberspace I stand corrected ...its No, not Ro Kum-Sok. I never could get those Korean names straight when I lived there either. Rudyard Kipling would have loved Seoul....

This is a good book, interesting reading. As a non-flyer, non-pilot all the tech talk about MiGs vs. Sabres is a bit daunting, but if you are a fan of the Public Television show Wings, this book is for you.
The book starts with the author landing at Kimpo before some dumbfounded US personnel. Then he flashes back to his childhood under Japanese occupation. Mixed in with discussion of childhood pranks is a rapid fire, zipped version of Korean history from the Shilla dynasty to the present. While no admirer of the Japanese (like many Koreans, he stauchly refers to the Sea of Japan as the 'east sea.') he points out that the Red Army also had a record of rape and pillage. This will not sit well with selective outrage enthusiasts who use the 'comfort women' issue for Japan bashing in the region.

Kum-Sok states that the Korean Navy and Air Force collapsed early in the war...it was the Inmingun, or North Korean Army, that held together. Kum-Soks' summary of the war is essentially the western rendition of the battles. When the stalemate developed after mid 1951, the war shifted to the skies over North Korea and Manchuria. It remains a common myth that the US did not pursue MiGs into the skies of northeast China, but after April 1952, says the author, they did exactly that with deadly effectiveness, knocking MiGs down as they slowed to land. Again, stories about air wars and battles are hard for me to follow and understand, and Kum-Sok often gets lost in endless renditions of sorties, statistics, or engineering specifications. Still, he does discuss a number of weaknesses that MiGs had:
...they were not supersonic, even when diving;
...the T-shaped tail obscured your view and often was fatal when exiting the cockpit;
...the double-wall canopy would often fog up;
...there was no rear view mirror;
Authors comment. Rear view mirror?? Fighter pilots use rear view mirrors? Do they use turn signals too?
...poor fuel economy;
...long and visible contrails from Soviet jet fuel;
...lousy tires;
and a few other sundry items.

After he defected to the south came the inevitable interrogation, tests of his credibility, and finally, fame. OF COURSE, one issue of tremendous relevance that our security services made sure to ask about was whether No Kum-Sok 'ever had sex with another man.' [I can just hear these losers on the runway at Kimpo ..."what? You are gay? Take that MiG back to North Korea NOW, homeboy!!!"]

By the way Kum-Sok was unaware of the operation Moolah offer for a MiG, and defected to the west almost two months after the KoreanWar was over. He did receive the 100 grand, however

ON SEPTEMBER 21, 1953, A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN MiG-15 PILOT, NO KUM-SOK, DEFECTED TO THE AMERICAN SOUTH KOREAN AIR BASE AT KIMPO, TURNING OVER RUSSIA`S TOP JET FIGHTER TO THE UNITED STATES, AND FULLFILLING SEVERAL YEARS OF PLANNING TO ESCAPE THE REPRESSION OF COMMUNISM. NO KUM-SOK WESTERNIZED HIS NAME TO KENNETH ROWE, AND IS NOW A PROFESSOR AT EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY IN DAYTON BEACH, FLORIDA. HIS LIFE STORY, "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM," IS A FASCINATING AND RICHLY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST AIR WAR PITTING JET AGAINST JET. THE KOREAN WAR ALSO FEATURED THE LAST AERIAL BATTLES AT RELATIVELY CLOSE QUARTERS USING GUNS, RATHER THAN THE RADAR GUIDED AIR-TO-AIR MISSLES THAT SOON FOLLOWED. ON ONE SIDE WAS THE AMERICAN MADE F-86 SABRE, AND ON THE OTHER, THE RUSSIAN BUILT MiG-15, EACH REPRESENTING THE LATEST AND BEST TECHNOLOGY OF THE TWO SUPER POWERS OF THE COLD WAR. AS J. ROGER OSTERHOLM POINTS OUT, LITTLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT, OR PORTRAYED ON FILM, THE NORTH KOREAN AND SOVIET SIDE OF THE KOREAN WAR. THIS BOOK GIVES IMPRESSIVE INSIGHT INTO LIFE IN NORTH KOREA, ESPECIALLY IN THE COMMUNIST AIR FORCES, WITH EXTENSIVE DETAIL OF RUSSIA`S INVOLVEMENT IN KOREA, A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET AT THE TIME. STALIN SENT TWO DIVISIONS OF TOP SOVIET FIGHTER PILOTS TO MANCHURIA, FROM VARIOUS UNITS WITHIN THE SOVIET BLOC. IN LATE 1949, AND AGAIN IN EARLY 1950, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, DEAN ACHESON, PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED THE DEFENSIVE PERIMETER IN ASIA THAT THE UNITED STATES WOULD VIGOROUSLY DEFEND, BUT EXCLUDED SOUTH KOREA. THE U.S.S.R., CHINA, AND NORTH KOREAN LEADERS THEN BELIEVED THAT THEY COULD , BY FORCE, REUNITE THE TWO KOREAS UNDER THE COMMUNIST BANNER WITHOUT INTERVENTION BY THE UNITED STATES. THEY WERE WRONG. THE EVENTS THAT LEAD TO THIS BOOK BEING WRITTEN, PROBABLY WOULD HAVE NEVER OCCURRED WITHOUT THE EARLY PARENTAL INFLUENCE FAVORING AMERICA AND CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. NO KUM-SOK`S FATHER WAS NON-COMMUNIST AND A MEMBER OF A DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HIS MOTHER WAS A ROMAN CATHOLIC, WHO REGULARLY ATTENDED CHURCH SERVICES, IN THE DAYS BEFORE COMMUNISM AND KIM IL-SUNG. NO KUM-SOK`S LIFE LONG ASPIRATION WAS TO LIVE IN AMERICA SOMEDAY. MOST KOREAN WAR HISTORIANS DISCOUNT THESE FACTS, AND, IN FACT, SUGGEST THAT NO KUM-SOK`S DEFECTION WAS ONLY FOR THE $100,000 REWARD OFFERED SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER (OPERATION MOOLAH) TO THE FIRST RED PILOT DELIVERING AN AIRWORTHY MiG-15 INTO ALLIED HANDS. AMERICAN B-29`S HAD DROPPED LEAFLETS OVER AIR BASES IN NORTH KOREA WITH THIS OFFER IN APRIL, 1953. NO KUM-SOK IS CERTAIN THAT NO MiG PILOT EVER SAW ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, OR EVEN HEARD OF THE OFFER. NO CHINESE OR RUSSIAN PILOTS WERE STATIONED IN NORTH KOREA AT THE TIME, AND HAD A NORTH KOREAN PILOT READ ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, THE MONEY OFFER WOULD HAVE MEANT LITTLE, NOR WOULD THEY HAD TRUSTED THEIR AUTHENTICITY. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" EXPRESSES WITH STUNNING CLARITY, THE FEELINGS EXPERIENCED BY A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN JET PILOT, LIVING A COMMUNIST LIE, HAVING TO FACE SUPERIOR TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED AMERICAN F-86 PILOTS IN "MiG ALLEY." THE BOOK OFFERS MANY TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE AIRCRAFT INVOLVED IN THE BATTLE FOR AIR SUPERIORITY-THEIR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. HAVING A HOBBY OF GIVING PROGRAMS ON THE AIR WAR OVER KOREA TO CIVIC CLUBS AND SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSES, I TRAVELED TO FLORIDA IN DECEMBER OF 1997,WHERE I HAD LUNCH WITH, AND INTERVIEWED, MR. KENNETH ROWE (NO KUM-SOK), AND FOUND HIM TO BE A VERY JOVIAL, INTELLIGENT, AND ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL GENTLEMAN. I HAVE READ HIS BOOK TWICE, AND HAVE GIVEN IT AS GIFTS TO AMERICAN F-86 ACES OF THE KOREAN WAR. NO KUM-SOK`S STORY WOULD MAKE A TREMENDOUS MOVIE. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" IS AN AWESOME BOOK! I LOVED IT!

This book is really unparalleled in terms of documentation and comprehension. Bermudez neatly addresses the subject by covering DPRK activities by country, rather than by method (bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, etc.) This makes the book coherent and easy to read. It is also good for students who need to do a last-minute term paper on the subject. (I recommend such students go back and read the book cover to cover, however.)

The book suffers from rather poor editing, however, as another reviewer has already stated. But that is forgivable. Bermudez is the unofficial encyclopedia of North Korea's military and security forces. His writing for Jane's Intelligence and his other published books make him a scholar with value.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the DPRK.

...This book is one of the most important works available to help one understand north Korea and their military capabilities.

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.

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.

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.

I suppose the information in this book would shock me much more if I were a really hard core Christian, so the parts about "worship" of Kim il-Sung don't really offend me. The description of the labor camps and everyday life in North Korea is the most shocking part of the whole book. It sounds just like Stalin's Soviet Union, and maybe worse. The persecution of Christians in North Korea represents just a small part of what's going on there...I wonder if its the same for all people who are "different" that live in that country. Unfortuanatly, its hard to tell if ALL the information is true, as is the case with any sort of book on a rogue nation. Hardly any of us have visited these countries, and even those who have have been limited in what they see. Luckily, they do provide a good deal of information from defectors and other people who have left North Korea. Pretty frightening material...

Five stars... yes. I recommend this book for anyone who may have the heart or the desire to learn of North Korea and the forces which shaped its present day existence. I have gazed over the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and seen the devastation in the land of the North and then by turning slightly to the right seen the prosperity of the South. At that time it became apparent who was walking in the blessing and whom in the curse. This book is an excellent aid to those who feel called to pray for N.K. It covers Juche, the architects of Juche, Korean history, those who have seen the inside of N.K. and the spiritual dimensions of this religion. The most challenging part of reading through the book was not the length but how draining and tedious the N.K. government propaganda is. The author hit the nail on the head when he called it "psycho-babble". I commend Commander Belke for writing this book and Living Sacrifice Books for publishing it.

-- Quite intriguing to read varying Amazon reviews of "JUCHE."

One reviewer (from NC) seemed to have an anti-Christian "axe to grind" -- which is not surprising given the inherently HOT ideological/spiritual conflict associated with this topic.

Ironically, had any reviewer in North Korea (Christian or otherwise) adversely commented on a pro-Juche book, he/she would end up in a concentration camp!

As one considers the spiritual map of the Korean peninsula, one cannot help but note the dramatic contrast between the North (heavily dominated by the Juche faith) and the South (heavily influenced by the Christian faith).

On his www.adherents.com website, Preston Hunter states, "But today's Juche has developed into a distinct, unique system, and has officially repudiated its Marxist-Leninist roots. While we recognize there may be validity in continued classification of Juche as a highly "heretical" subset of Communism or general secularism, it seems that, on balance, to do so today is no more accurate than continuing to classify Buddhism as a Hindu sect." Ref: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html#Juche

NOTE: The ADHERENTS website currently ranks Juche as the 10th largest religion in the world.

One might ask, "So what!?" Why is this significant? My answer is that every North Korean's worldview is heavily influenced by the Juche ideology since he/she has been systematically brainwashed with since age 3. Thus, whether one is a diplomat, an international businessman, student, policy analyst, missionary or humanitarian aid worker, etc., one lacks the basic knowledge necessary to understand this radically different way of viewing the world.

For even more detailed (and controversial) information on the spiritual principalities/occult/origins/background of Juche, see my 657-page master's thesis entitled, "JUCHE: The State Religion of North Korea" (available via either the University of Michigan Library or the Regent University Library (www.regent.edu).

For example, there are amazing "coincidences" such as the "Tower of Juche Idea" [555 ft tall obelisk -- pagan (Juche) origins located at 39 degrees N. Latitude] and the "Washington Monument [also 555 ft tall obelish -- pagan (Free-Mason) origins also located at 39 degrees N. Latitude.]

Many specifics regarding the North Korea's spiritual principalities (and origins thereof) are included in the unabridged version of JUCHE. For Korean researchers, Both Rev. Dr. Cho (Senior Pastor, Yoido Full Gospel Church) and the Institute for East Asian Studies (Seoul) also have a copy of the (larger) unabridged version of JUCHE.

Without apology, I do not present JUCHE as a "neutral" book. One candidate (Christian) publisher's CEO asked me if there was any way that I could edit the manuscript such that it "would NOT be offensive to the government of North Korea" (NOT Voice of the Martyrs). Such a request was like asking the Simon Wiesenthal Center to write a book on th Holocaust that would not be offensive to Nazis, neo-Nazis, or Hitler!

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) was the one publisher that did not find the topic "too hot to handle." Remarkably, VOM had already been scathingly denounced in official North Korean propaganda for anti-totalitarian protests against North Korea that occurred in Europe. So, VOM's decision to publish JUCHE is just another step in their uncompromising dedication to support the persecuted church worldwide and to the uncompromising propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered his American soldiers to march through, view and film the concentration camps in person so that people could NOT someday claim that, "such a thing did not happen." Eisenhower was NOT neutral about the Nazi's, their regime and their concentration camps -- neither am I regarding Juche, the North Korea regime and their concentration camps.

JUCHE includes a history of North Korea's concentration camps including drawings, policies, etc. For more recent firsthand accounts from North Korean concentration camps, see the new VOM book, "Eyes of the Tailless Animals" (see either Amazon.com or the publisher's (VOM) website (www.persecution.com).

Kindest regards,

Tom

Interest in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has increased since President Bush included the nation with Iran and Iraq as an "Axis of Evil" state. Further interest was generated in October of 2002, when the North Korean government confirmed that it possesses a nuclear weapons program. I, along with many Americans, are now seeking information about this mysterious hermit nation. I chose Kongdan Oh's "North Korea: Through the Looking Glass" because it seemed to be a non-technical overview of North Korean society, economics, and politics. The blurbs on the back cover described the book as providing "genuine insight" gleaned from "painstaking research." Unfortunately, the book did not live up to its promise.

One finds oneself wishing that the authors would share with the reader all of the interesting data that they discovered in researching the book. Instead, all we get are general statements about the corruption and ineptitude of the North Korean government. This could have been a much better book if the authors had elected to paint a more vivid picture by including more detail. Here's an example: on page 66 the authors make the following statement: "North Korean government and party officials also engage in many illicit activities such as counterfeiting, production of illicit drugs, and smuggling (especially conducted by the DPRK's foreign diplomatic corps). " There is no elaboration on this provocative declaration. The citation for this statement is an article by David Kaplan et al. in US News & World Report, dated February 15, 1999. I looked up the article and found it to be fascinating. The US News piece states that North Korean counterfeit "$100 bills ... are cranked out on a $10 million intaglio press similar to those employed by the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, officials say. North Korean defectors claim the notes come from a high-security plant in Pyongyang. Kim Jeong Min, a former top North Korean intelligence official, told US News that he had been ordered to find paper used to print US currency but couldn't. 'Instead. I obtained many $1 notes and bleached the ink out of them,' he says." You can see how the authors water down the source material to a bland presentation of generalities. It as if the authors went to the same writer's school as the North Korean propagandists, from whom they endlessly and boringly quote.

I was also annoyed by the repeated jabs at the North Korean government. Readers should be allowed to come to their own conclusions about the foolishness of the North Korean dictator, rather than be pelted with parenthetical inserts about the ineptitude of the leadership. An example: "The most pressing economic problem is the food shortage. The apparent (but wrong) solution to the problem is to try to achieve economic self-sufficiency... " This style gets irritating very quickly. Sometimes, the writing becomes downright stupid. An example from chapter 8: "North Korea is half a world away in the part of the globe less familiar to Americans -- Asia rather than Europe."

I was interested in examining the 29 photographs that occupy the center of the book. Unfortunately, they all appear to be government-approved. For instance, there are several sterile photos of peoples' backs as they stand still looking at statues exalting communism. Of course, the lifelessness of theses photos probably does reflect the Zeitgeist of this unfortunate country. But I wish the photographs could have provided more insight into the difficulty of daily life in North Korea.

Despite the flaws in the book, the subject is of such intrinsic interest that I kept reading. My persistence was rewarded at the end of the book, where the authors discuss policy options in dealing with North Korea. This section was well-reasoned and shows that the authors do indeed know their topic. Too bad the preceding 200 pages were not equally as good.

A great introductory insight into one of the most strange and mysterious countries on earth. The authors provide valuable examples and a good understanding as to how the bizarre North Korean government operates, and how this regime minipulates the minds of its people. The most interesting parts of the book are the insights provided by the many defectors from the North, and the stories they tell.

In my opinion, the book lacked any real insight into North Koreas military capability, it kind of leaves the reader wondering how strong this country really is. Though the author does mention that North Korea has a "military first" policy, and most of its money and resources goes into the military, we don't know what types of capabilities they really have, what types of technology they possess, and what countries are supplying them with what technological products. This lack of information may be due to lack of the authors access to this information.

After reading this book, I still don't know how the economy of this country functions, this is definetly a country that requires serious help from the outside. This book is a great read, and a very good introduction to understanding this backward nation.

This book is really loaded and provides the reader with much insight behind this closed borders of this isolated country. North Korea is one of the last countries in the world that doesn't have diplomatic relations with the U.S. The book also provides historical data that is helpful as there isn't much known about this country who happens to be the largest weapons exporter in the region. Another book that I highly recommend as it discusses North Koreas secret, but aggressive nuclear weapons program supported by China is the thriller THE CONSULTANT by Alec Donzi.

Reading Bruce Cummings' book "Korea's Place in the Sun" was a flashback to my college days. I had a radical history professor --- good teacher, nice guy, but his constant rants against US foreign policy through the ages got old very fast. That teacher was not Mr. Cummings ... but the two could be good friends!

On Page 385, Professor Cummings says that "In the 1980s the American Embassy in Seoul had the hallucination" that his writings had encouraged anti-American demonstrations. He calls the charge "pure nonsense." But if his earlier writings had the same tone as this book, I can understand why someone might have such a "hallucination."

Cummings' chapters on pre-World War II Korea are the most interesting (and least offensive) in the book. The chapter on "Industrialization, 1953 - 1996" is rather bogged down with economic and financial information --- but is still readable.

Unless you're a left-leaning academic, you might want to skip or skim the chapters on the post- WW II occupation and the Korean War. (And if you are a left-leaning academic, there's probably little in this book that you haven't already heard or mused upon anyway!)

The chapter on Korean-Americans was simply a 21-page litany of how racist white- and African-Americans have been, and how they continue to hold stereotypes about Koreans. (It does not occur to the professor that perhaps, for example, the reason ABC's sitcom "All American Girl" failed was simply because it was just not a very good show; no, it was those racist Americans who couldn't accept an Asian actress on TV!)

I also question some of Cummings' "facts." Just one example is the famous "Tree-Cutting Incident" of August, 1976, when North Korean border guards at the DMZ brutally murdered two American officers supervising South Korea workers sent to trim branches to give the Southern guards a clearer view of the area. Cummings (Page 469) claims that the tree was being trimmed by North Koreans ... and implies that the South Koreans and Americans overreacted. (Don Oberdorfer has a different --- and I think more accurate --- account of this incident in his book "The Two Koreas," PP 74 - 83.)

While it seems that Cummings is primarily negative toward USA, I can't say he is totally biased in favor of North Korea and its allies. There is criticism that --- considering how sensitive the DPRK is most of the time --- would offend the folks in Pyongyang. Still, Cummings' general attitude indicates that he blames America for a lot.

Toward the end of his tome (Page 473) --- after so many pages of pointing out America's failures and North Korea's good points or innocence --- the author admits: "The point is not that North Korea is a nice place ... beyond suspicion .... Quite the contrary, its policy for half a century has been to pile lie upon lie, exaggeration upon exaggeration .... But that is what we have learned to expect from communist regimes. What is the excuse for [such behavior] in the US?"

Apparently, the author has a very naive view of how USA should be: perfect and beyond reproach at all times in a very imperfect world. One would think that a college professor would be more sophisticated than that!

One more comment: Hasn't Cummings heard of the 1990s famine that has racked North Korea? I suspect that the conditions he raves about in DPRK --- the high life expectancy, the low infant mortality, the regime's economic self-sufficiency --- no longer apply (if they ever did!)

Bottom line: This is a well-written book. It succeeded in keeping my interest, for the most part. In spite of the cheerleading it does for Kim Il Sung & Co., it is probably well-researched. But I would not recommend it as one for beginners. If you're new to Korean (or Cold War) history, start somewhere else. When you do read this one, be prepared. Or, as another reviewer said, "read with caution."

In writing a modern history of Korea one of the greatest challenges would be in maintaining a balanced viewpoint. This is especially so of any examination of the past 50 years of Korean history which would involve to a high degree deciding on where to place the blame and to whom to give the credit. Such questions asked might include "Who started the Korean War?"; "What were the causes of Korea's economic 'miracle'?"; and "Just how crazy is Kim Jong Il?"

Bruce Cumings's book is interesting in that it exposes the root of a great many misunderstandings between America and Korea(both north and south), misunderstandings which often led to serious blunders if not outright tragedies. Part of the blame he places on the ignorance of the American press, which fed into the idea of North Korea as a rogue state and perpetuated it to the American public; hence America often adopted a misguided, if not dangerous policy towards the North. In addition he places some blame on Americans themselves who go about their lives with almost total indifference towards Korea, a country where millions of families have been separated for over 50 years, where there are still more than 30,000 US soldiers posted, and in which peace between the North and South has almost been entirely dependent on US foreign policy.

Although some people may find the book slightly uneven in its analysis, overall Cumings does a good job of providing the reader with an insightful look at the underpinnings of modern Korean society and the main figures of Korean politics following World War II. However, the book (which was published in 1997) does not include any of the incredibly important dvelopments of the past 5 years: the 97 economic crisis; Kim Dae Jung's election as president; North Korea's launching of a rocket over Japan; the peace summit in Pyoungyang; and Kim's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. It also fails to mention anything of the supposedly 1 million North Korean lives that have been lost to famine during this time. All of these things I'm sure will be included in an updated version at some point.

If Cumings views are unorthodox, they are necessarily so. Too much of American foreign policy concerning Korea has been based on ignorance and been executed with muscle rather than diplomacy. This book stands as counterpoint to those which have often failed to notice or disclose the essence of Korean history, which is Koreans themselves. Although Cumings may misstep here and there--at one point he states that Korean high school graduates have equivalent skills to American college juniors--he's heading in the right direction, trying to open up discussion and stimiluate debate. He always does this honestly and for the most part fairly. His highly readable prose combined with his skills as a scholar make this an important book.

One of the first books I read about Korea, Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History, illustrates the importance of interpreting history cautiously. Korean history, because of the division of the peninsula between two warring countries, is highly politicized. Cumings has been generally classified as a New Left historian and as sympathetic to the North Korean regime. The second charge is just mud-slinging, but the first generalization is still an active question in South Korean politics and academia.

First, since the book's publication in 1997, the Koreas have undergone many changes, both domestically and in their relations. South Korea's media and academic industries have also matured, and expression is more lively and open. There are more generalist and expert histories available on the market, so the importance of Cumings' work is easier to evaluate.

Cumings is generally a proponent of unification. This taints his history in several ways. First, Choson is depicted as a golden age of unified Korean power. Cumings also supports the Conservative Korean line, that foreigners wrecked Choson and downplays evidence of aristocratic factionalism and the weakness of the Korean central government. His discussion of the Japanese Occupation downplays the role of Korean businessmen in the Occupation economy and government. His account of the Korean War is heavy on politics and military leadership discussions, but spare on soldier's recollections. Cumings' sections on North Korean industrialization are competent, but since 1997 the subject has been better researched. Cumings still cannot compensate for the dearth of economic data, which plagues accounts to the present.

Cumings also burdens his account of Korean history with questionable social psychological opinions about the nature of Korean culture. He reinforces the conservative Korean view of the unique mission and origin of the Korean people as offspring of divine forces, a tactic the Koreans share with the Japanese. His account is subtly anti-global and anti-foreign. For this reason, his account is by Korean standards mainstream unificationist, but his open-minded treatment of North Korea notwithstanding, he is aligned with the forces of anti-globalization.

Not that the book does not contain valuable information about Korean history presented with colorful prose. However, what Cumings omits is damning. Most of ancient Korean history is omitted, which accentuates Choson at the expense of earlier dynasties. Discussions of religion are downplayed for politics and sociology. Cumings does not hide his bias, but readers need to examine his opinions well and use his footnotes for independent evaluation. And, by all means, read other newer books about Korea.