The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit KingdomThis unique book, now fully updated, provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of life in North Korea today. Drawing on decades of experience, noted experts Ralph Hassig and Kongdan Oh explore a world few outsiders can imagine. In vivid detail, the authors describe how the secretive and authoritarian government of Kim Jong-un shapes every aspect of its citizens' lives, how the command socialist economy has utterly failed, and how ordinary individuals struggle to survive through small-scale capitalism. Weighing the very limited individual rights allowed, the authors illustrate how the political class system and the legal system serve solely as tools of the regime. The key to understanding how the North Korean people live, the authors argue, is to realize that their only allowed role is to support Kim Jong-un, whose grandfather founded the country in the late 1940s. Still a cypher, Kim Jong-un, as did his father before him, controls his people by keeping them isolated and banning most foreigners. North Koreans remain hungry and oppressed, yet the outside world is slowly filtering in, and the book concludes by urging the United States to flood North Korea with information so that its people can make decisions based on truth rather than their dictator's ubiquitous propaganda. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 13 | |
CHAPTER THREE The Struggling National Economy | 39 |
CHAPTER FOUR The Emerging Peoples Economy | 61 |
CHAPTER FIVE Propaganda News and South Korean Soap Operas | 93 |
CHAPTER SIX Public Declarations and Private Thoughts | 121 |
CHAPTER SEVEN The Human Rights Deficit | 139 |
Other editions - View all
The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom Ralph Hassig,Kongdan Oh Limited preview - 2009 |
The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom Ralph Hassig,Kongdan Oh No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
American border bribe broadcasts cadres camps cell phones China Chinese Chon Chosun Ilbo Chosun Ilbo online collapse communist country’s crimes defected DPRK economic elites English factories farms father foreign former human rights hundred ideology Japanese Jong-un JoongAng Ilbo Juche July Kaesong KCNA Kim family Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung University Kim Jong-il Kim regime Kim regime’s Kim’s Korean society Korean War Korean workers labor leader live markets ment military military-first military-first politics million National Nodong Sinmun North Korean defectors North Korean economy North Korean government North Korean media North Korean press North Korean won officials organizations party party’s percent prison propaganda Pyongyang radio receive rice Roh Moo-hyun sell Seoul shortages Sinuiju social socialist soldiers Soviet survey television thousand tion tourists trade Tumen River United visitors Yonhap zone