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Rogue State: How a Nuclear North Korea Threatens America

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In an expansion upon his earlier works in U.S.-China relations, this latest by William C. Triplett II is an unflinching examination of North Korea. Triplett uses his skill as historian and political analyst to present an insightful inspection of the North Korean crisis, the Chinese nexus and policy prospects for future engagement. Triplett deftly weaves the complex issues of communism, weapons proliferation, drug trafficking, terrorism, the U.N. and political theory into a single work with clear prose and cogent reduction. This book is an excellent choice for those who would like to become well informed on the crises and controversies surrounding Kim Jung Il and his father Kim Il Sung. Likewise, the thorough analyses of political missteps and contemporary hypotheses for future engagement, make this a must read for any who wish to remain abreast of the latest political theory on communist Asia.

At a time when North Korea is deliberately threatening the world with a nuclear crisis, William Triplett's new book, Rogue State, provides some valuable insight.

Unlike earlier works on the Koreas, Rogue State is neither a pure history text (a la Bruce Cumings) nor historical narrative (a la Don Oberdorfer), but rather a colorful, often grotesque, indictment of 58 years of tyrannical rule by the Kim dynasty. Written by the former chief Republican counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, an insider to Washington's Asia policy for the better part of 30 years, Rogue State is a scathing chronicle of North Korea's involvement in drug trafficking, nuclear development, weapons proliferation, and sponsorship of terrorism.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Even a Beltway insider may learn for the first time about:

- North Korea's clandestine "spy city," the underground enclave where Kim Jong Il trains his agents.

- Kim Jong Il's mysterious "Office 39," the quasi-governmental department which operates his family's personal slush fund (and is even replete with its own personal gold mine).

- Accounts of South Korean and Japanese women kidnapped by the Kim regime and forced into sexual slavery for regime bigwigs.

- Tales of cannibalism in the countryside, part of the mass famine that occurred while Kim Jong Il was busy spending half a billion dollars on a memorial hall to glorify himself.

One would think that a regime so despicable could have no defenders, but millions of teacher-indoctrinated students in South Korea and expatriate Koreans in Japan (the Chosen Soren) support the North with words and cash. Triplett takes care to delve into this bizarre phenomenon.

Yet his focus is not limited to North Korea alone. His most controversial views, in fact, concern not Pyongyang but rather the familial connections he draws between Kim's regime and Beijing, the former representing (in Triplett's words) China's "borrowed knife." For those who've read his previous books, "Year of the Rat" and "Red Dragon Rising," the refrain is a familiar one, and Triplett's support for this thesis takes up a considerable portion of the book.

Still, those who presume Triplett to be merely a conservative warmonger will have a few surprises in store. For instance, Triplett warns that America (short of an imminent threat) should not initiate hostilities in North Korea. Nor, he suggests, should Republicans or Democrats use the "other side's handling of the North Korea problem" as a campaign issue in 2004, an obvious eye-raiser considering the failed talks and finger-pointing that pervaded U.S. North Korea policy under Clinton. Moreover, Triplett's ultimate conclusion is uncharacteristically passive, namely that America will only be able to topple the despotic Pyongyang regime by convincing China that it is no longer in its interest to prop it up.

Overall, whether or not you agree with all of Triplett's positions, this book should be greeted as a welcome addition to the strikingly small volume of literature on the Pyongyang regime.

For readers who are looking for an insightful and highly-readable introduction to North Korea, the Kim dynasty, and the ever-tendentious U.S.-North Korean relationship, this book represents essential reading for 2004.

ottimo testo
interessante anche alla luce degli avvenimenti attuali
terrificante e terrorizzante lo spregio delle vite umane che l'oligarchia al comando in usa ha anche nei confronti della propria popolazione
(emblematica la stretta di mano della hallbright con il capo di stato in alta uniforme e con le medaglie ricevute per aver ucciso soldati americani!!!)

Another book that should be read by all, and can be grouped in with "9/11 Commission Report", Holy War On The Home Front" and "Imperial Hubris". Triplett has thirty years of experience with China and national security. There are extensive notes along with an appendix. The book begins with the Russian communist conspiracy. Then he details China as the the financial supporter of North Korea. Also China is the arms dealer to them and other nations. The horrific terror and crimes of North Korea are discussed. Also discussed is the threat to Japan, Taiwan, and other countries.

In an expansion upon his earlier works in U.S.-China relations, this latest by William C. Triplett II is an unflinching examination of North Korea. Triplett uses his skill as historian and political analyst to present an insightful inspection of the North Korean crisis, the Chinese nexus and policy prospects for future engagement. Triplett deftly weaves the complex issues of communism, weapons proliferation, drug trafficking, terrorism, the U.N. and political theory into a single work with clear prose and cogent reduction. This book is an excellent choice for those who would like to become well informed on the crisis and controversy surrounding Kim Jung Il and his father Kim Il Sung. Likewise, the thorough analyses of political missteps and contemporary hypotheses for future engagement make this a must read for any who wish to remain abreast of the latest political theory on communist Asia.

This is one of the three books I commented for a book review assignment of a Korean history class, taught by a very very renowned professor on Korean history. I got an A/A- for the review. My professor especially argeed with my comments for Triplett's book. As I disagree with the previous reviews on Amazon(which is the reason I chose to read this book. a big waste of time, sadly), I want to leave my review here for future reader's reference.


Rogue State: How a Nuclear North Korea Threatens America, although written by a former chief Republican counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee William Triplett II, is overall a disappointing book. Triplett accuses North Korea of proliferating weapons, supporting terrorism, producing and selling drugs, abusing human rights, and kidnapping females to be sex slaves. Although Triplett provides many detailed allegations and facts, he does not give credible and unbiased sources for many of his allegations, which greatly weakens his claim. Moreover, he presents North Korea as the most dangerous state in the world. He also accuses China for planning behind it and supporting it militarily, economically, and politically for almost sixty years, with a hidden intension to use North Korea as a "borrowed knife to kill other people." (p. 9) Contrary to what is suggested in his title, Triplett does not spend much analysis on North Korea nuclear crisis itself, but just the potential outcomes if everything goes as he argues. He also fails to give any constructive recommendations, only predicting that issues on North Korea, and nuclear weapons in particular, will not progress unless the U.S. define the issue not as "North Korea" but as "communist China and North Korea." (p. 12) Yet America already tried to involve China in solving the North Korea nuclear crisis.

Triplett borrows the phrase "killing with a borrowed knife" from a Chinese military classic the 36 Stratagems. He presents this strategy as if it is a secret doctrine of the Chinese people. According to him, it means "to use covertly another country to annihilate your enemy." (p. 9) However, he apparently does not fully understand the meaning of this phrase. Triplett says that to make the stratagem work, it has to be disguised, by keeping your opponent from learning vital information (denial) and misleading him about your true intentions (deception). He therefore argues that China and North Korea have been adopting a strategy of denial and deception, trying to hide their malicious aggressive intensions. (p. 10) However, his interpretation of this stratagem is completely wrong. It is true that to make this stratagem work, one has to disguise his intentions. Yet the disguise is not only for the opponent, but more importantly, for the one you "borrowed the knife" from. The point of this strategy is to deceive someone, make him fight against your opponent, and let that person bear all the costs. That China and North Korea indeed made some secret agreement, as Triplett suggests, goes directly against this strategy. Therefore, Triplett cannot reach the point that China and North Korea have been using denial and deception by just claiming that they try to "kill with a borrowed knife."

Triplett goes on to spend about a quarter of the book on a history of the role Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's Red China played during the Korean War, to demonstrate their close connection with North Korea. Triplett gives a list of records of the Soviet's and China's involvement in North Korea (p. 9), without providing any source for his allegation. This puts the reader in doubts about the credibility and impartiality of his claim. For example, Triplett writes that "Moscow and Beijing helped Kim start the Korean War; Beijing intervened to block a United National victory in the war." (p. 9) However, the question of who started the Korean War, North or South, is still debatable. In a more impartial view, Bruce Cumings thinks that it is wrong to ask who started the war, since both North and South Korea were at fault. (Cumings, Korea's Place in the Sun. p. 263) Cumings argue that the United Nation's decision to enter the war against North Korea was solely based on American and South Korean sources and was likely to be biased. (Cumings. p. 263) Thus, accusing China of haveing blocked a United Nation's victory without providing enough background information could mislead the reader. In another allegation, Triplett claims that "communist China helped Pyongyang to start the Korean War." (p. 73) This accusation is apparently false. At that time, China saw conquering Taiwan as its priority and did not want the Korean War to divert its energy. It did not support the idea of the Korean War, and did not help North Korea in the war until very late, actually too late in a military strategy perspective.

To demonstrate that the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea produced "a series of decisions that initiated a reign of terror over millions of people in the Far East and established the framework for East Asia today," Triplett claims that Stalin, Mao, and Kim decided in a communist summit in late 1949 to let Kim conquer South Korea, Mao conquer Tibet and Taiwan, and Ho Chi Minh conquer Indochina, and attack the Japanese Communist Party. (p. 21) However, Triplett again fails to credit any source for this important decision. What's more, as we can see after more than half a century, none of these goals materialized except for China's takeover of Tibet. Many of these aims were even never attempted, let alone attempted but failed. Therefore, even if Stalin, Mao and Kim did make a secret agreement, with only one goal achieved, I wonder whether China and North Korea indeed have the ability to initiate a reign of terror and put billions of lives in danger, as Triplett claims.

Triplett claims that China supports North Korea and is to blame for making North Korea so dangerous. However, Triplett fails to make it clear what China's intension and incentive to support North Korea is. This is crucial to how the non-communist world should respond. China may not have malicious aims to support North Korea. It could have done it partly because of Mao's romanticism to help his communist friend in the 50's. And once the support started, it would be hard to stop. China might also support North Korea to increase its own influence in international politics but without the aim to use North Korea to dominate the world. Such intensions are perfectly justified. The U.S. is also supporting various countries and regions around the world in order to have a stake in regional politics, such as Taiwan, Japan, and Israeli. Another possibility may be that China sees the trend in North Korea towards terrorism and instability. Fearing a neighboring country getting into trouble and the spillover that would ensue, China may be trying to prevent a social and political crisis in North Korea by providing support. Triplett fail to analyze any these possibilities. In fact, China should be one of the countries that want to see North Korea to become a terrorist state the least, unless it can fully control Kim Jong Il, which Triplett fails to prove either. Triplett provides another piece of evidence against his accusation of China's involvement himself. To prove the danger of North Korea, he says that it turned to income from producing and selling drugs, after China cut its support to fund its own economic development. Regardless of the amount of support China has provided North Korea, how could we assume that China is the evil planner behind North Korea right now, after China already cut its support?

The weakest point of Triplett's book, in my point of view, is that after making so many unaccredited and rather controversial claims, he fails to go anywhere significant in his analysis. He does not really examine the implications of the nuclear tensions after 2002. He argues that there is no simple military solution to a nuclear North Korea. To solve the North Korean problem, the U.S. has to define the problem not as North Korea, but as communist China and North Korea. (p. 12) Although Triplett claims that the Bush administration are blind to the role of communist China, what I have shown is that China has always played an important role in negotiating with the North Koreans. And it is not the case that the U.S. has not tried to make China influence North Korea more. If China has tried all it can, Triplett's conclusion does not help the problem. If China tried to hide its influence on North Korea, then what can America do even if it re-defines the problem? If it wants China to move, there will be a price to pay. This is a known rule of the game of international politics. Triplett's suggestion is incomplete without a recommendation on how to employ China into the negotiation at a reasonable price.

To be sure, Triplett does provide many examples and tries to prove the connection between China and North Korea from an historical perspective. However, because he fails to give references for many important examples, the creditability and impartiality of his book, and consequently his conclusion, is in question. Readers with more knowledge about Korean history could easily give alternative explanations of his examples that do not lead to his conclusion. Besides, his conclusion does not contribute much to the situation right now. Given Triplett's role in the U.S. government, this book is important and valuable in another sense--it more or less indicates one U.S. governmental official's perspective on North Korea, a dangerously prejudiced perspecitve.

(Another minor point, Triplett should have done a better selection and framing of the cases. For example, in a list of prices the non-communist world have paid for North Korea, Triplett parallels the loss of more than 50,000 Americans' lives in the Korean War, to the killing of a high school girl singing in a chorus in the same shootout that killed the South Korean first lady. (p. 7) No matter how cruel the killing of an innocent high school girl is, it is way less important and significant than the more than the causality of 50,000 Americans in the Korean War. Putting these two on the same list gives rise to doubts about the author's capability.)

Having very little previous knowledge concerning the nuclear capabilities of both China and North Korea, I absorbed a lot of information through this book by Triplett. It does a great job of pointing out the potential (and very possible) dangers associated with the current military advancements in China and North Korea. He poses the threat in a way that really opens your eyes to the problems already at hand. In order to better educate yourself in international politics and foreign affairs, this book is a must read.