North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula, A Modern History [Paperback]

Paul French (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1842774735 | ISBN-13: 978-1842774731

North Korea remains one of the least understood nations on earth; a nuclear enabled "Hermit Kingdom" ravaged by economic mismanagement and reliant on illegal weapons sales, smuggling and counterfeiting for most of its foreign reserves while undergoing a prolonged famine and propped up by aid donations. Not a normal country in any sense of the word, its nuclear weapons program makes it a country whose actions could have global ramifications. This book demystifies North Korea through revealing the daily life of its citizens; the political and economic history of the nation; the reasoning behind the country's combative way of engaging the world and the tentative economic reform process now being undertaken. The prospect of a nuclear North Korea preferring brinksmanship to engagement and negotiation, makes understanding Pyongyang's guiding principles, motives and possible future increasingly important.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Fact-packed and readable, this is a fine introduction for the general reader to a troubling land. Once again at the cutting edge of a post-colonial hot spot, trust Zed to tell it like it really is' - Aidan Foster-Carter, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University, UK; Author of Korea's Coming Reunification and many other works on the peninsula 'Paul French's book on North Korea is a comprehensive look at one of the world's most secretive countries. It is a miracle that he has been able to find out so much about a country that publishes no data, highly restricts visits by foreigners and bans its people from talking to them without official approval... ' - Mark O'Neill, Shanghai correspondent for South China Morning Post 'Paul French has written a thorough and erudite book that offers many intriguing insights about the world's most mysterious country led by an equally mysterious regime. The book's main merit is that the author ignores empty 'axis-of-evil' rhetoric in an effort to concisely inform his reader' - Lutz Kleveman, author of The New Great Game:Blood and Oil in Central Asia 'A useful introduction to this most opaque nation. The reportage and historical perspective are illuminating' - Joe Studwell, Editor in chief, China Economic Quarterly (CEQ) and author of the The China Dream 'Rich in detail, well researched, Paul French's thorough yet readable book is a fascinating and valuable addition to our scant knowledge of this singularly secretive, scary country' - Catherine Armitage, China bureau chief, The Australian

About the Author

Paul French is a Director of Access Asia, a market research and business intelligence company specializing in China and North Asia's economics and markets.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Zed Books (March 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842774735
• ISBN-13: 978-1842774731
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,483,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good, some bad, April 7, 2005

By 

Maskirovka (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula, A Modern History (Paperback)

I'm a budding student of North Korea ("Pyongyangologist"). So I snapped up a copy of this book when it came out. Thus far, I'm not terribly impressed with it. Why is that? Well, I think that French seems rather biased against the US (if not actually for the DPRK). I'll give three examples:

First, he accuses the US during the 1992-1994 crisis over Yongbyon of "extreme belligerence." This really makes me wonder if French bothers to read the stuff put out by the KCNA (Korean Central News Agency, the DPRK's "press") and by other mouthpieces of the regime. The North Koreans routinely refer to the US as "fascists," "imperialists," "war mongers," etc. Since the crisis resumed in 2002, the regime has put out a line of propaganda posters that show such engaging themes as a Korean People's Army soldier smashing the Capitol dome with a karate chop, a DPRK missile doing the same, and --my personal favorite-- an American soldier impaled on DPRK bayonets. Furthermore, during the 1992-1994 crisis, the DPRK was the country that said any form of sanctions against it would be "an act of war." Who's being extremely belligerent here? Granted President Bush did call the DPRK a member of the Axis of Evil, but that's just a pebble compared to the mountain of hateful, vitriolic propaganda that pours out of Pyongyang aimed at the US.

Second, I was disturbed by the way the author characterized an infamous event at Panmunjon in 1976, the so-called "Axe Murders."

Essentially what happened was this. One fine day, two American officers led a work party into the DMZ near the truce village to cut some branches from a tree that was blocking their view into the DPRK. They were not armed. A group of KPA guards accosted them and demanded that they stop. Perhaps unwisely, the senior American refused to do so (although he was within his rights to refuse). Whereupon the North Korean commander shouted, "Kill the foreigners." This is exactly what the North Koreans did. They beat both of the American officers to death with axe handles and anything else that was handy (photos of this incident are available online).

Mr. French refers to this cold-blooded, supremely brutal, and unprovoked pair of murders as "a confrontation" that "led to the deaths" of the two American officers. Using that sort of formulation, one could describe September 11 as "a confrontation that led to the deaths of 3,000 American civilians" It's a classic example of doing violence to the English language.

Third, there is the incredible excuse the author offers for the North Koreans to violate the spirit (if not the letter of the 1994 Agreed Framework as well as a separate promise to South Korea). This was the decision by the DPRK to embark on a clandestine highly enriched uranium production program some time in the late 1990s. Mr. French attributes this action as the result of North Korean frustration over delays in implementation of components of the Agreed Framework. Supposedly, the North Koreans started the HEU program in order to force the US back to the negotiating table and honor its promises.

That interpretation of facts simply defies common sense. Granted, the North Koreans had some reason to be unhappy with the delays in the delivery of fuel oil and the lagging effort to build the light-water reactors promised to them (although they did get some of what they were promised and might have gotten it all had they played fair with the US). But if all they wanted to do was force the US back to the table, why didn't they simply announce that if the US didn't start talking with them by a certain date, the Agreed Framework would be suspended or ended outright? Why would they embark on the HEU program, which they had no way of knowing the US would discover as the means to force the US back to the table?

Mr. French, it makes no sense. I'll say it again. It makes NO sense. I respectfully suggest to you that the North Koreans became disenchanted with the Agreed Framework, but they continued to play along to extract concessions while trying to pull "a fast one" on the US and the international community by developing a bomb through the HEU route. In other words, by the late 1990s, they were acting in bad faith.

So the bottom line on "the Paranoid Peninsula" for me at least is that while it probably has some useful information, I'd treat the analysis with a substantial amount of skepticism.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Important Dispassionate Work on a Highly Emotive Subject, October 29, 2006

By 

sinophile "Pekin" (Beijing, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula, A Modern History (Paperback)

Mr. French has done us all a great service by writing a dispassionate analysis of recent history in the DPRK. Few places in the world bear witness to the intersection of so many disparate national interests and international concerns. The complexity of the subject is often obscured by emotive reporting that rehashes the prevailing neo-Con world view.

As Mr. French clearly demonstrates throughout his well written book, any of the few remaining misguided apologists for the Pyongyang regime have no factual standing for their views. However, the "demonization" of Kim Jong Il and his regime has simply worked to paint the Bush administration into a corner by removing any flexibility in its dealings with Pyongyang. The DPRK has survived against the odds for more than 60 years and has acquired a new lease on life through its ham-fisted entry into the nuclear club. This fact is something that will not change no matter how much anger and alarm the White House and the Western media can generate. It is not a question of doing something reactively in a knee-jerk manner, which seems to be the order of the day.

Now is the time for dispassionate analysis to find a way to break through the diplomatic log-jam that has kept the Korean peninsula in suspension since 1953. This requires the emotional reserve to understand how the DPRK sees the threats posed by the post-WWII world. Mr. French's book is worth the price of admission for the knowledge that it conveys to the reader on that score.

It seems to me that other reviewers have overstated the shortcomings of Mr. French's book. Certainly someone who is serious about understanding the dilemma on the Korean peninsula will need to go through the entire literature available on this topic and sort through a wide range of views. While Mr. French's book is one of many that are mandatory reading, it is, admittedly, not a complete view (as if there is such a book on any subject).

I have only given his book four stars because of my pedantic bias for research in local language materials. However, while Mr. French's book is based on non-Korean language sources, this does not detract in the least from its usefulness.