Customer Reviews

Kim IL Sung: The North Korean Leader (Studies of the East Asian Institute)

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This is essential for understanding North Korea and how it relates to the world of today. To undestand North Korea you must understand it's founder Kim Il Sung. The book goes on to show how he created a Stalinist State and huge army to insure it's survival. It talks about the many attempts on the lives of south korean presidents and his unpredictable nature that he passed on to his son and successor. Understandin Kin Il Sung will help the reader understand why Noth Korea is today run more like a cult than a country and why it is the most secretive country in the world today and a failed society.

This book is advanced but very good. It is complicated at times but in the long run it is good for reports or projects. It is very interesting. Kim Il Sungs career is much more interesting than Lenin's or Stalins. Very Good!

In 2001 I visited North Korea and found this book very helpful because our guides would only give us the official version of their history. The book is packed full of information and the only one I have found that explains how Kim Il Sung gained and kept power. Dae-Sook Sue has put a great deal of reseach into the book and let's hope he writes another book on North Korea covering Kim Jong Il present reign and the future of the country. There is no other county like North Korea so I recommend reading the book then visiting the country.

Ever wonder why North Korea is such a ... arrogant little country? This book will tell you exactly why. Guerrilla leaders scarred by years of eating rats, living in the hills, and butchering Japanese invaders do not necessarily possess the skills needed to run a country! This book is a must for anybody interested in the current standoff between America and Pyongyang, which North Korea seems to believe will end with the Korean peninsula being devoured by a sea of fire. Kim Il Sung's early days as a revolutionary and guerrilla fighter are given much attention, as are the purges he carried out in order to become the supreme leader. If you're looking for a play-by-play account of the Korean War, look elsewhere though- this book sweeps quickly through that period. The author focuses primarily on Kim's tight-rope act between the Soviet Union (which gave him the job in the first place), China (which saved his butt from the American-led U.N. forces), and the U.S. (which has refrained from crushing lil' Kim's summer camp of starvation in the name of East Asian harmony). Other topics addressed by the author include: Kim's frustration at not being acknowledged as the Emperor of the Third World, Kim's frustration at not being able to feed his population while spending 99.99% of his country's slight earnings on military hardware, Kim's frustration that the rest of the world didn't care much about the Korean problem (until now, of course), and Kim's frustration at not receiving a THIRD honorary degree from some university in Africa or Southeast Asia (naw, just kidding...but you get the point). The only complaint I have is this: the avalanche of names and details that sometimes disrupts the narrative. Perhaps a little too scholarly for anybody not specifically interested in the history of the North Korean Communist Party from 1946-1980's. Still, if you can get past this, the book is rewarding, and one will walk away knowing who Kim Il Sung was, how his son maneuvered into power, and why North Korea is a country with a Napoleonic complex.