Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

Bradley K. Martin, Martin Bradley K.

Macmillan, Oct 15, 2004 - History - 868 pages

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. Lifting North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take readers inside a society, that to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from birth to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of megalomaniacs.

To North Koreans, the Kims are more than just leaders. Kim Il-Sung is the country's leading novelist, philosopher, historian, educator, designer, literary critic, architect, general, farmer, and ping-pong trainer. Radios are made so they can only be tuned to the official state frequency. "Newspapers" are filled with endless columns of Kim speeches and propaganda. And instead of Christmas, North Koreans celebrate Kim's birthday--and he presents each child a present, just like Santa.

The regime that the Kim Dynasty has built remains technically at war with the United States nearly a half century after the armistice that halted actual fighting in the Korean War. This fascinating and complete history takes full advantage of a great deal of source material that has only recently become available (some from archives in Moscow and Beijing), and brings the reader up to the tensions of the current day. For as this book will explain, North Korea appears more and more to be the greatest threat among the Axis of Evil countries--with some defector testimony warning that Kim Jong-Il has enough chemical weapons to wipe out the entire population of South Korea.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - chaosmogony - LibraryThing

A very thorough, at times depressing, look into the North Korean regime from the very beginning. Worth a read if you're interested in that sort of thing.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - cyafer - LibraryThing

An interesting and enlightening book whose true effect was heavily clouded by a confusing lack of organization. The author bounces rapidly between history, personal interpretations of events ...

Contents

• 1 To the City of the GodKing: 1
• 2 Fighters and Psalmists: 11
• 3 On Long Marches Through Blizzards: 29
• 4 Heaven and Earth the Wise Leader Tamed: 47
• 5 IronWilled Brilliant Commander: 69
• 6 With the Leader Who Unfolded Paradise: 93
• 7 When He Hugged Us Still Damp from the Sea: 120
• 8 Flowers of His Great Love Are Blooming: 136
• 9 He Gave Us Water and Sent Us Machines: 154
• 10 Lets Spread the Pollen of Love: 186
• 11 Yura: 203
• 12 Growing Pains: 226
• 13 Take the Lead in World Conjuring: 235
• 14 Eyes and Ears: 262
• 15 From Generation to Generation: 270
• 16 Our Earthly Paradise Free from Oppression: 290
• 17 Two Women: 305
• 18 Dazzling Ray of Guidance: 317
• 19 A Story to Tell to the Nations: 341
• 20 Wherever You Go in My Homeland: 357
• 21 If Your Brain Is Properly Oiled: 374
• 22 Logging In and Logging Out: 402
• 23 Do You Remember That Time?: 426
• 24 Pickled Plum in a Lunch Box: 435
• 25 I Die You Die: 447
• 26 Yen for the Motherland: 461
• 27 Winds of Temptation May Blow: 465
• 28 Sea of Fire: 482
• 29 Without You There Is No Country: 498
• 30 We Will Become Bullets and Bombs: 512
• 31 Neither Land nor People at Peace: 543
• 32 In a Ruined Country: 551
• 33 Even the Traitors Who Live in Luxury: 579
• 34 Though Alive Worse Than Gutter Dogs: 592
• 35 Sun of the TwentyFirst Century: 633
• 36 Fear and Loathing: 656
• 37 Sing of Our Leaders Favors for Thousands of Years: 683
• Acknowledgments: 707
• Notes: 715
• Index: 849

About the author

As a journalist, Bradley K. Martin has covered Korea and other parts of Asia for a quarter century, including stints as bureau chief for The Baltimore Sun, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Asia Times (for which he wrote a "Pyongyang Watch" column), and Asian Financial Intelligence. Since 1979, he has had four prolonged stays in North Korea and more direct access to the country than most any other American journalist. He is currently a journalist in residence at Louisiana State University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty; Thomas Dunne books
• Authors: Bradley K. Martin, Martin Bradley K.
• Editors: Bradley K. Martin, St. Martin's Press
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2004
• ISBN: 0312322216, 9780312322212
• Length: 868 pages
• Subjects: History / Asia / General; History / Asia / Korea