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North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea

by Andrei Lankov (Author)

4.1 68 ratings

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The Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea for over 60 years. Most of that period has found the country suffering under mature Stalinism characterized by manipulation, brutality and tight social control. Nevertheless, some citizens of Kim Jong Il's regime manage to transcend his tyranny in their daily existence.

This book describes that difficult but f existence and the world that the North Koreans have created for themselves in the face of oppression. Many features of this world are unique and even bizarre. But they have been created by the citizens to reflect their own ideas and values, in sharp contrast to the world forced upon them by a totalitarian system.

Opening chapters introduce the political system and the extent to which it permeates citizens' daily lives, from the personal status badges they wear to the nationalized distribution of the food they eat. Chapters discussing the schools, the economic system, and family life dispel the myth of the workers' paradise that North Korea attempts to perpetuate. In these chapters the intricacies of daily life in a totalitarian dictatorship are seen through the eyes of defectors whose anecdotes constitute an important portion of the material. The closing chapter treats at length the significant changes that have taken place in North Korea over the last decade, concluding that these changes will lead to the quiet but inevitable death of North Korean Stalinism.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

ISBN-10

0786428392
ISBN-13

978-0786428397
Publisher

McFarland & Company
Publication date

May 8, 2007
Language

English
Dimensions

6 x 0.72 x 9 inches
Print length

358 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“if anything is missing here, it’s probably not worth knowing...well written, comprehensive and relevatory...valuable”―School Library Journal; “deserves ongoing mention and recommendation as a powerful survey...must have this rare insider’s look at the North Korean psyche”―Midwest Book Review; “we are obliged to Lankov for this insight...Lankov is one of the most illuminating North Korea watchers around...uniquely perceptive...especially good on the details of everyday life”―The New York Review of Books; “offers an intriguing and informative peek into North Korea through the lens of daily life”―Pacific Affairs; “valuable...a detailed description of North Korean life...one of the best guides to the daily life of North Koreans available in English”―Korean Quarterly.

About the Author

Andrei Lankov is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ McFarland & Company (May 8, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 358 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0786428392
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786428397
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.72 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,118,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #347 in North Korean History
- #377 in South Korean History
- #1,289 in Asian American Studies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.1 68 ratings

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A. N. Lanʹkov
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Andrei Lankov
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Andrei Lankov is a historian and analyst of Korea past and present. He at present runs a research project that investigates daily life in North Korea through interviews with North Korean refugees. He is a professor of Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, and is also a regular commentator on Korean issues in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, as well as on CNN, Fox, and Al Jazeera.
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Merrily Baird

a real eye-opener on north korea

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2007

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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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Ron L

I wish he'd write an update...

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017

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Let’s be clear from the start that this is a compilation of articles written for periodicals, and as such it suffers from a certain ‘jerkiness’ as the subject is constantly changing. Plus we also get more than a little repetition, as, for instance, a term is (once more) defined for a presumed new reader. Further, there are inconsistencies since it seems that as new data became available numbers might change; see the number of deaths from the 1990’s famine for example. Suffice to say, it could have been improved by a more attentive editor. Add to that, the photos are often not very clear; certainly not pro-quality. And then my (used) copy came with marginal notes; not as advertised.
It is certainly worth the read regardless.
I’ve read some few books on the subject of North Korea, but there seems to be a serious disconnect between them.
Some claim that we in the west are misled; that the lives of those in North Korea are not drastically different from those who live in the westernized nations of Asia.
Others are clear regarding how the population of NK is mistreated by the government and how the NK people manage to live their lives as a result of, and in spite of, that mistreatment. Lankov is no apologist for the disaster known as North Korea.
Lankov is a survivor of the disaster known as the USSR. He, tellingly, takes the western left to task for its fashion of propagandizing in support of the failing commie states, including, finally, the DPRK, as the others collapsed. The western left’s fantasies of free stuff and utopias only finds limits when mass starvation is obvious and becomes too clear to ignore, and with regard to NK, some still haven’t opened their eyes,
It would seem that those right across the border in South Korea would be immune to such foolishness, given the abundant NK corpses, but it seems not, and those fools get a critique also.
But Lankov is still subject to wishful thinking at times: the preface makes the claim (Pg 2) that “Most people’s lives remain nearly untouched by high politics…” (whatever “high” politics means), and then spends the next 300 pages presenting evidence that the lives of North Koreans are impacted by politics (high or low, I’m not sure) in 24/7/365 fashion. Never do those in North Korea ever get to ignore politics; a slip of the tongue can put you and your family in a ‘camp’ from which you will hope you escape by dying. Perhaps they might appear to be able to ignore politics, but after reading the book, you might (as I did) come to believe the NK population has simply developed deception to a fine art.
Similarly, he claims the communists here and elsewhere delivered better healthcare than the democracies, citing WHO ‘estimates’ for longevity and infant mortality. Any digging at all tells you that WHO uses the data provided by the government of the country in question to develop those estimates; the same Communist governments which constantly and blatantly lie in every other form of data.
In the case of North and South Korea, we also have the clear evidence of poor health in the decreased stature (some several inches) of NK people as a result of life-long malnutrition. And we have Lanklov’s information on the same page regarding shortages or lacks of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. Evidence beats claims (and estimates) always and everywhere.
Then, questionably, he assumes the founders of the North Korean government were idealists rather than power-hungry thugs and toward the end, he details a lavish dinner for the Kims and associates during the famine when thousands were dying of starvation daily and rhetorically asks whether they were “cruel”. He decides they were “indifferent”. Regarding the first, it is purely opinion and mine is different. Regarding the second, I’m not sure I see a difference.
Aside from those instances, he seems clear-headed regarding the dishonesty, mistreatment, constant indoctrination, imprisonment, and starvation of the North Korean population at the hands of the government, and the transgressions of that government in many other areas, including outright kidnapping of foreign nationals.
But one anecdote caught my eye: Regarding the NK workers engaged in logging in Russia, he notes the poor treatment (by western standards), but also the extremely high pay by comparison to what it is possible to earn in NK. Further, he states that the workers have about 1/3 of that amount collected by the supervisors for use by the NK government. Compared to most Western governments, the Norks are in a low-tax area!
Unlike any other account I’ve read, he does take a long view of the circumstances, often wondering what will occur when the Kims lose power, as they must. None of the alternatives are pretty and there’s much worthy of consideration. He touches on one effort which gets little attention: The South really has no interest in unification by now. They have watched what happened when East Germany collapsed and seen the tremendous costs involved in cleaning up the messes left by Communists world-wide. They’d rather the North ‘progress’ such that they do not have to play the savior to one more batch of Communist victims.
Flawed, but well worth reading.

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Amazon Customer

Fascinating

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a fascinating journey through several decades of North Korean modern history. Mr Lankov was an exchange student there in the early 80's, a fate I share albeit in a country close by. I wish he had spent some time on some of the concrete experiences he had while there, providing more of a glimpse of everyday life as an exchange student in Pyongyang, an experience few have encountered.

The book is a compilation of columns, as such much is regurgitated, hence a vigilant copy editor would have provided a tighter text and perhaps some re-writes as well. His conclusions at the end of most of the columns seems a bit "beige" for lack of a better word, not bland just beige. Having most likely lived on a steady diet of kimchi I would have expected more spicy conclusions.

I read the Kindle edition. It is unfortunately laced with bad or lazy formatting, new columns (chapters) begin in the middle of a page, photos are not re-sized to fit the Kindle format and there is no interactive ToC. This is most likely no fault of Mr. Lankov, but his agent or publisher has made him a dis-service by not reviewing the digital file more thoroughly. It is unfortunate because Mr. Lankov's text deserves to be handled with more respect.

Some people might find a three star review critical, but the review takes the whole package into consideration. The text itself is clearly worthy of four stars, and even five with a more comprehensive editor. The sloppy formatting is what holds down the overall impression.

5 people found this helpful

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