Andrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the forme
r Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He
has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal c
ontacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding.
In The Real North Korea, Lank
ov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this
opaque police state. After providing an accessible history of the nation, he tu
rns his focus to what North Korea is, what its leadership thinks, and how its pe
ople cope with living in such an oppressive and poor place. He argues that North
Korea is not irrational, and nothing shows this better than its continuing surv
ival against all odds.
A living political fossil, it clings to existence in t
he face of limited resources and a zombie economy, manipulating great powers des
pite its weakness. Its leaders are not ideological zealots or madmen, but perhap
s the best practitioners of Machiavellian politics that can be found in the mode
rn world. Even though they preside over a failed state, they have successfully u
sed diplomacy-including nuclear threats-to extract support from other nations.
But while the people in charge have been ruthless and successful in holding on
to power, Lankov goes on to argue that this cannot continue forever, since the
old system is slowly falling apart. In the long run, with or without reform, the
regime is unsustainable. Lankov contends that reforms, if attempted, will trigg
er a dramatic implosion of the regime.
They will not prolong its existence. B
ased on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how th
eir leaders rule, and how both survive.
