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With a paucity of authoritative firsthand information on North
Korea available to the citizens of the world's democracies,
discourse on the subject is impeded, and the democratic deficit
regarding national policies towards the DPRK is necessarily
broadened. Indeed, at no other time has the need for this
information been more acute. The six-party talks regarding the
nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula made plain the DPRK's
ambition (and ability) to play a larger role in world affairs, and
its formal nuclear tests have exacerbated the tension and urgency
of the situation. The death of Kim Jong Il and succession of his
son Kim Jong Un, and recent reopening of bilateral discussions with
the United States further increase the necessity of a nuanced
understanding of contemporary society within the DPRK. If the world
is to effectively deal with the reality of North Korea, reliable
information is critical. This book, recommended by Alternative
Nobel Prize winner Johan Galuting, is a response to this problem.
It takes as its point of departure the notion that all leaders and
governments, no matter how odd or dysfunctional their behavior may
seem, act in a fundamentally rational matter-but that this
rationality must be put into context in order to be properly
understood. That is, their rationality is not independent of their
historical experience, their culture, their value structure, or
their institutional constraints, and all of these things must be
considered in order to discover the rationality behind the decision
making that appears on its surface to be so 'irrational' and/or
'dangerous.' Only by understanding this can these policy responses
be rendered intelligible, perhaps even predictable. In this
respect, the book speaks to broader and more timeless themes of
theoretical import. As a test case, the book seeks to demystify the
"intelligence black hole" that is North Korea. In so doing, it
supplies the reader with much needed factual information garnered
through firsthand experience by those who have actually visited and
done research in North Korea. Each chapter consists of previously
unpublished research by prominent experts in the field. The book is
organized topically in order to make its information quickly
accessible. This volume also differs from most in the breadth of
its coverage: its goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of
North Korean society rather than an in-depth treatment of any
single characteristic of it. This book not only puts a face on the
hermit kingdom, but it also provides the reader with the
theoretical guidance necessary to actually understand it, placing
the Kim family in the broader context of the society in which the
family has propagated itself. Finally, and perhaps most
importantly, North Korea Demystified represents the first edited
volume on North Korea to address the succession of Kim Jong Un.
North Korea Demystified is an important volume for all political
science and history collections focused on the politics and
cultures of East Asia. In addition to being an invaluable resource
to a scholarly audience, the book will also be of interest to
policy makers, journalists covering East Asia, businesspersons
interested in North Korea as an emerging market, and students (both
advanced undergraduate and graduate).
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