North Korea/South Korea: U.S. Policy at a Time of Crisis

by John Feffer

The Korean peninsula, divided for more than fifty years, is stuck in a time warp. Millions of troops face one another along the Demilitarized Zone separating communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea. In the early 1990s and again in 2002-2003, the United States and its allies have gone to the brink of war with North Korea. Misinterpretations and misunderstandings are fueling the crisis. "There is no country of comparable significance concerning which so many people are ignorant," American anthropologist Cornelius Osgood said of Korea some time ago. This ignorance may soon have fatal consequences. North Korea, South Korea is a short, accessible book about the history and political complexites of the Korean peninsula, one that explores practical alternatives to the current US alternatives that build on the remarkable and historic path of reconciliation that North and South embarked on in the 1990s and that point the way to eventual reunification.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

John Feffer is director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including The Pandemic Pivot and the Splinterlands trilogy. His essays have been published in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He had been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now! and other international news media.

Reviews

[Kony]

Fascinating, and nicely concise. But take with grains of salt: it's dated. Also, amidst the chaotic mix of opinions on N. Korea, it's unclear whose views merit greater weight: native/ethnic Koreans, or smart experts on Korea. Feffer's an expert; he's not Korean (hence lacks direct subjective insight into intense feelings stirred by division and unification rhetoric). But his mini-treatise is readable and gives an interesting counterpoint to media sound bites.

[Gonzalo U]

A clear historical contextualization of the situation of the two Koreas, the traces of the past that indelibly mark them to this day, their ties with Japan, China and the United States, and the guidelines that should be followed to reach a reunification for the benefit of Koreans and globally.

[Nindele]

Se me había olvidado que lo había leído así que lo pongo ahora. Es una pena que sea bastante difícil de encontrar porque me pareció una auténtica gozada, además de ser sorprendentemente neutral tratándose de un libro sobre Corea del Norte está escrito de forma muy amena. Nindele recomienda

[J.C. Rhee]

Fair.