By Victor Cha
This was an incredibly good exploration into the modern North Korean state. Cha worked in the Bush administration as a diplomat to North Korea so he comes with an incredible depth of knowledge and hands on experience. With the on-going "problems" that North Korea poses to the modern world it is of great importance that we understand what is going on there. Cha does wonderful job exploring the history of South and North Korea, the role that other countries (Japan, China, Russia, US) play with their competing interests in this region, the history of the Kim family and North Korea's own self perception as it has been shaped by the Kim family. This book helped me to make sense of the on-going saga that is North Korea.
"The cold war era was North Korea's heyday. But if adherence to juche ideology during the cold war was considered a successful practice, the rise of neojuche conservatism today is an act of desperation. It represents a last-gasp effort to define a new legitimacy for the state that has failed miserably in fulfilling its end of the social contract. For reasons discussed in the ensuing pages, North Korea has become a prisoner of its own ideology and its own Cold War successes. Its hope to return to the 'good old days' is severely misplaced. Juche was possible then because of massive inputs from the Soviet Union and China. Even with continued Chinese assistance, it is not possible to sustain today. And yet, the regime knows of no other way to try to justify its continued hold on power. This is an unsustainable situation." Pg 63
"A North Korean propaganda expert B.R. Myers attests, over the course of the past sixty years, through state propaganda, the people of North Korea have been led to believe that they 'are too pure-blooded, and so too virtuous, to survive in this evil world without a great parental leader.'" Pg 73
"This combination of strenuous, unrelenting labor and the meager portions of food prisoners subsist on results in what North Korean human rights expert David Hawk calls 'permanent situations of deliberately contrived semi-starvation.'" Pg. 173
"One can say without prejudice that the Bush administration did more to take on the human rights problems in North Korea than any other administration. . . .His concern for the plight of the people was about as genuine as any human being could have had. His conviction on this issue was deep, as he told Woodward, 'Either you believe in freedom, and want to - and worry about the human condition, or you don't.'" Page 205
"The most significant conventional deterrent is the North's artillery arrayed along the DMZ." Page 219
"All key buildings and palaces are linked with a deep underground network to allow for quick escape if attacked. . . Beneath Kim Il-sung Square reportedly lies a bunker command post large enough to accommodate a hundred thousand men with a fresh-water and ventilation system, and a thirty-kilometer (19 mi) tunnel that leads out of the cities into nearby mountains." Pg 222
"Pyongyang's devotion of massive amounts of very scarce resources to such projects suggests it actually wants to acquire these capabilities and be accepted by the world as a nuclear weapons state. It is unlikely to be willing to trade them away in return for international acceptance and a peace treaty with the United States." Page 300
"The fourth basic fact is perhaps the most significant and disappointing: despite China's frustration with its poor and pathetic neighbor, it will never abandon it. . . And as the only patron supporting the decrepit regime today, it is, ironically, more powerless than it is omnipotent because the regime's livelihood is entirely in Chinese hands. It must, therefore, countenance bad DPRK behavior, because any punishment could stabilize the regime. Pyongyang knows this, and deftly leverages its own vulnerability and risk-taking behavior to get sustenance, diplomatic support, and protection from its ambivalent big brother against the South Korean and American 'aggressors.'" Page 317
"Despite making all of the wrong economic decisions throughout its history, the country eked out an existence. Despite propagating and ideology that provides luxury to the Kim family and very little to the rest of the population, the people, even defectors, retain affection for the dynasty. Despite engaging in the most threatening behavior in East Asia, including military attacks and building nuclear weapons, the regime has yet to suffer punishment in the form of retaliation or preemptive strike. In each case the regime has survived, though not through extraordinary shrewd statecraft or policy making On the contrary, historians will remember North Korea for all the ways not to run a country." Page 429
Book 11
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