A well-written, interesting account of the rise and nature of the North Korean State. Lankov lived there as a foreign exchange student at some point and still seems to maintain contacts there, as well as in other diplomatic circles that share their views of North Korea with him. Both a factual and personal account from what I would think is one of the better placed people to discuss this secretive regime.
Lankov explains the crazy international relations that Korea follows - attempts to bribe unsupervised aid from other countries that it can use to reward and maintain the Kim family support system within the country.
He also looks at their crazy economic system - or complete lack thereof currently. Most of the country seems to survive in some kind of economic anarchic state without rules or supervision - anarchic in the sense where everything is negotiable and has its price, both objects, services and dispensations from "rules".
The last two chapters look at various scenarios and issues around what he sees as the inevitable collapse of the current regime.
As an aside, there are also some interesting little bits of information and observation around the fall of communism in Russia and other satellite states from an insider's perspective.
No comments:
Post a Comment