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  • The Real North Korea

  • Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia
  • Written by: Andrei Lankov
  • Narrated by: Steven Roy Grimsley
  • Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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The Real North Korea

Written by: Andrei Lankov
Narrated by: Steven Roy Grimsley
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Publisher's Summary

Andrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the former Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal contacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding. In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. After providing an accessible history of the nation, he turns his focus to what North Korea is, what its leadership thinks, and how its people cope with living in such an oppressive and poor place. He argues that North Korea is not irrational, and nothing shows this better than its continuing survival against all odds. A living political fossil, it clings to existence in the face of limited resources and a zombie economy, manipulating great powers despite its weakness. Its leaders are not ideological zealots or madmen, but perhaps the best practitioners of Machiavellian politics that can be found in the modern world. Even though they preside over a failed state, they have successfully used diplomacy - including nuclear threats - to extract support from other nations. But while the people in charge have been ruthless and successful in holding on to power, Lankov goes on to argue that this cannot continue forever, since the old system is slowly falling apart. In the long run, with or without reform, the regime is unsustainable. Lankov contends that reforms, if attempted, will trigger a dramatic implosion of the regime. They will not prolong its existence.

Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive.

©2013 Andrei Lankov (P)2014 Audible Inc.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Full of facts and interesting but not narrative driven

I would recommend this book to a scholar interested in North Korea. Not someone in search of a story about life inside North Korea like most books on the country.

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Deep dive

I listened to a river in darkness before this book and was maddened by the lack of detail and historical context of much of that story, this book scratched that itch and then some. A real deep dive into one of the most secretive and mysterious countries in the world. The end goes deep into suppositions about the future of the country, but there is an honest and well intentioned disclaimer that precedes it that gives creedence to the integrity of the author. Highly recommended, but of you are looking for any personal accounts of life from within n.k., you won't find them here.

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