North Korea Confidential - 9780804844581

North Korea is assumed to be a country where everyone worships a power-crazed dictator, where vitriolic disputes with neighboring South Korea frequently erupt into violence, where nuclear bombs are detonated with alarming regularity, and where most people are perpetually on the verge of starvation. But what is life in North Korea really like? Read this book and find out.

In seven fascinating chapters the authors explore what life is actually like in modern North Korea today for the ordinary "man and woman on the street." They interview experts and tap a broad variety of sources to bring a startling new insider's view of North Korean society—from members of Pyongyang's ruling families to defectors from different periods and regions, to diplomats and NGOs with years of experience in the country, to cross-border traders from neighboring China, and textual accounts appearing in English, Korean and Chinese sources.

This book reveals that ordinary North Koreans, poor and rich alike, enjoy listening to K-pop music and are addicted to South Korean TV dramas—in direct contravention of the government's dictates. Pirated foreign movies and shows—American, South Korean and Chinese—are often smuggled into the country, and sold as DVDs and more recently, USB memory sticks. Such snippets of information help the reader understand that North Korea is undergoing dynamic changes affecting the 24 million people who call it home.

Just as the 1950-53 Korean War created a new generation of South Korean over-achievers, the authors believe that the mid-1990s famine in North Korea has caused an important social and economic transformation in North Korea that will eventually spur its citizens to greater achievements.