Dear Leader cover art

Dear Leader

Poet, Spy, Escapee--A Look Inside North Korea

 Preview
Try for $0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Dear Leader

Written by: Jang Jin-sung
Narrated by: Daniel York
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $29.96

Buy Now for $29.96

About this listen

 THE STORY THEY COULDN'T HACK: In this international bestseller, a high-ranking counterintelligence agent describes his life as a former poet laureate to Kim Jong-il and his breathtaking escape to freedom.

As North Korea’s State Poet Laureate, Jang Jin-sung led a charmed life. With food provisions (even as the country suffered through its great famine), a travel pass, access to strictly censored information, and audiences with Kim Jong-il himself, his life in Pyongyang seemed safe and secure. But this privileged existence was about to be shattered. When a strictly forbidden magazine he lent to a friend goes missing, Jang Jin-sung must flee for his life.

Never before has a member of the elite described the inner workings of this totalitarian state and its propaganda machine. An astonishing exposé told through the heart-stopping story of Jang Jin-sung’s escape to South Korea, Dear Leader is an “impossibly dramatic story…one of the best depictions yet of North Korea’s nightmare” (Publishers Weekly). Art & Literature Authors Political Science Politicians Politics & Activism Politics & Government Imperial Japan China North Korea
All stars
Most Relevant
I knew some of the details shared in the book about the Kims and their despotism but hearing it shared first hand with all the details is a whole other story . Also the details of escaping North Korea are just as scary. I've briefly bumped into people from North Korea but I never even remotely suspected the painful memories that may linger in their past. Up to even today I'm still shaken thinking how such a place can have "democratic" and "Republic" in its official name when its in fact the exact opposite of those.

An insider point of view

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.