Customer Reviews

The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom

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The ever-growing community of government officials, scholars, and ordinary citizens concerned about North Korea has cause to celebrate the issuance of "The Hidden People of North Korea" by Ralph Hassig and Kongdan Oh. A decade ago, in publishing "North Korea through the Looking Glass," this husband and wife team established themselves as leading observers of North Korea. "The Hidden People" reaffirms that status by showcasing their superb ability to synthesize a vast amount of information without policy bias. At the same time, the strengths of Hassig and Oh in sorting out signs of change and training a powerful light on the fault lines between illusion and reality provide the raw material for others to judge whether North Korea can long survive as we currently know it.

"The Hidden People" is divided into nine chapters. Chapters 2 through 8 focus on Kim Chong-il, his family, and his leadership style; the economic system as it operates in theory and is lived by people on an every day basis; the government's crumbling control of the information environment; human rights issues; and the growing number of defections. Neither the final chapter, "The End Comes Slowly," nor any other offers a significant focus on the strategic questions with which policymakers most often grapple. In this regard, there is very limited attention paid to the country's dependence on weapons of mass destruction, its willingness to proliferate WMD technology, and its inclination (or lack thereof) to abide by disarmament agreements. This matters little, however, because numerous other authors have addressed these issues.

This is supposed to be a book about life in North Korea. Instead it is a hodge-podge of statistics, the living conditions of the leadership, how bodyguards are selected and about three hundred pages of other ramblings. I was very disappointed in this book as I hoped for a look into the actual living condition's and lifestyle of average North Koreans. If I had wanted a statistical and economic briefing of the country, I would have called the state department.

This is the most authoritative and complete report yet available outside the hermit kingdom on life in North Korea. I have known "Katy" Oh for some years as a top American analyst of Korean issues, and this husband and wife product is a tour de force indeed considering how difficult the subject. With this deeper understanding at hand, perhaps we will hear fewer simplistic assumptions about the North in the future. The Hassigs persuasively suggest that the foreign aid we and South Korea have provided actually served to help prolong the regime. As one of those who predicted Kim Chong-il's reign would be short after the death of the Great Leader, it is clear to me now why so many of us were wrong, and why this anachronistic closed totalitarianism may well even survive his own death. Highly readable, thorough, and well written.

I thought I would have a read as I work in applied economics. I have to say I hardly write reviews. The Hidden People of North Korea book had so many generalizations and was so one sided that I could not not write a review ....

Quite a few of the numbers are vague and without reference ' 'arms exports contribute tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year as well...'' (p90) and the passages where like from a story book and not a non-fiction book 'One of the largest cases of North Korean smuggling was revealed on a and stormy night in April 2003..." (p91). Tens of millions as in 20M to hundreds of millions as in 900M, 20M to 900M that is a huge magnitude. There is no reference to a source even to ground their estimation in. 'Stormy night' is a cliche that broke away from the tone of the book. The more I read the more painful it was. "... North Korean presents the appearance of a large cult..." (p190) or "The members of the privileged class of three million (the upper half of the core class) appear to support the regime actively on the premise that they would not otherwise have a good a life". I find it hard to look at the book as a soundly researched, academic work with hard facts and a balanced view of North Korea after off handed comments like that. You can't just call a country a cult or say just because 3M people (where did this 3M come from) 'have a good life' they support regime (maybe you could say 3M are members of the party, actively registered in pro regime activities, or a host of other things, but just say on the basis that they are living well they support the regime is hard to connect the dots on that assumption). I thought this book needed more balance...

To be fair, I did find some interesting anecdotes about individuals in North Korea.

Harvard Political Review has written a review on the book as well.