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38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a real eye-opener on north korea, May 23, 2007
This review is from: North of the Dmz: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea (Paperback)
For years now, Western observers of North Korea have tended to use absolutes in describing the country. It is, for example, said to be the last Stalinist nation on earth and the world's most secretive, isolated, autarkic society, while its leader (Kim Chong-il) is characterized and caricatured as odd and ruthless in the extreme. None of these descriptors is necessarily wrong, but individually and collectively they tend to obscure the fact that a great deal has changed over the past several decades.
Riding to the rescue, so to speak, is the distinguished Russian scholar Andrei Lankov, who has gathered together in "North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea" articles originally printed in the "Korea Times" and "Asia Times." Lankov brings to his musings and this book exceptional skills and credentials: he writes beautifully, has a fine sense of humor, attended Kim Il-song University several decades ago, knows South Korea as well as its northern counterpart, and has personally experienced growing up in a Communist country. The resulting book is a delight to read and certainly one of the most valuable primers ever published on North Korea, with its 100-plus essays at once both anecdotal in tone and exceptionally well-researched.
Lankov's main focus in "North of the DMZ" is the life of everyday North Koreans, and in this regard the essays cover everything from the arts, media, social structure, and recreation to love and marriage, transportation, education, and food supplies. Another large portion of the essays cover policies and control systems that the government has tried to impose, with the emphasis here on how poorly these are actually working. The essays were not written with the intent of answering strategic questions about the viability of the North Korean state, and the book does not address the perspectives of those who rule or such issues as the role of nuclear weapons in ensuring the survival of North Korea. Nonetheless, "North of the DMZ" paints a compelling picture of a society and economy in flux. This society bears little resemblance to the tightly-controlled and idealized country described in official propaganda, and anyone seeking to answer strategic questions about North Korea's future will want to factor in the tactical ground truth uncovered by Lankov.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most fascinating essays, April 28, 2008
This review is from: North of the Dmz: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea (Paperback)
Most talking heads, or indeed all talking heads, especially those you see on TV or read from articles, can only pretend to know anything about North Korea, and then only superficially, and even that is from the speculations of others who themselves in turn, for lack of real knowledge, only imagine what life is like in North Korea, based on whatever meager rumors and arrogant and erroneous hearsay they picked up from places they don't remember, and necessarily supplemented and twisted using their own unfortunately totally unrelated life experience. All, that is, except Andrei Lankov.
It's amazing to realize how little we Westerners know about communism after 50 years and hundreds of billions of dollars fighting and analyzing it, let alone a far eastern version of it, let alone one that's pushed to the extreme.
North Korea is almost a make-believe world.
Andrei Lankov grew up in the communist USSR and spent two(?) years in the Kim Il-Sung university in the DPRK, and is now a lecturer/processor in a university in South Korea. His essays about life in the DPRK have run on the Korea Times website for some time, and have been some of the most sought-after articles. Now collected in book form, they tell of the daily life in DPRK from an insider's point of view, with profound understanding of how communism really works. They make a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in the bizarre but logical in its own way world of communism. The writing style is particular cozy and fun. Enjoy a few of these essays, and you can probably talk more intelligently or at least correctly about the DPRK than 90% of the talking heads who are too busy projecting opinions and making money to have any time left to understand something as difficult as communism or the DPRK.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating description of daily life in North Korea, February 5, 2009
This review is from: North of the Dmz: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea (Paperback)
Fascinating description of daily life in North Korea, and how much it has changed in recent years. The essays are short and informative. I planned to only read a few, but this book is almost impossible to put down. Every page contains a revelation. The writing is witty and engaging.
Lankov is a Korea expert who grew up in the USSR, so he is able to fruitfully contrast the communist society of his youth with North Korea. That gives him an edge that is illuminating about more than just North Korea.
A few examples that caught my attention:
Lankov went to North Korea as a Soviet exchange student. Russians in the USSR thought of North Koreans as brainwashed automatons back then--quite similar to the American perception, but who knew?
When North Korean television showed a protest in South Korea to demonstrate that South Koreans were oppressed, the average North Korean noticed instead that, contrary to what they had been told by their government, South Koreans did not appear poor. They appeared well fed and well dressed. Unlike themselves.
Chinese people are dumping VCRs and buying DVD players in droves, the result of which is that--in part because the border has become porous due to the decline of the North Korean state-- North Koreans are buying cheap used VCRs and watching South Korean programming, spreading South Korean fashion, music and culture. Lankov compares that to the rock and roll and blue jeans of his Soviet youth, and wonders if the consequences might be similar.
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