The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea

by Victor Cha

336 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2024

Reviews

[BJ Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine a senator on the foreign affairs committee, or perhaps an ambassador to some country in the far east, was put on the spot with the following question: "What are the chances of Korean reunification at some point in the future, and what are the roadblocks to such an eventuality?" The interviewee mumbles out some platitudes, but then realizes that their answer was wholly inadequate. So this senator/ambassador goes to some political think tank or focus group and hires them to provide him with a proper answer the next time he is put on the spot. Of course this think tank reasonably thinks to themselves, "That is the dumbest question ever." But a commission is a commission and so they order a junior member to put together a task force to answer the question. That poor sop on the low end of the totem pole gathers around him a bevy or interns pursuing their Masters in Global Studies (Hey... I have one of those), does the requisite research, and turns in a 300+ page report. This report is then given to the senator/ambassador who quickly shuts it down with a "Just give me a one minute summary." They then file the report away in some drawer where it will never see the light of day.

This book is that report. It is chuck full of meaningless statistics and data, and questionably attained survey results. For the latter, think about it. How honestly do you think someone inside North Korea will be about their perspectives on the regime? And how unbiased do you think defectors will be in their responses? This data is presented in the most unreadable way possible and the whole thing is then seasoned with wild speculation, and... voila! You have your very own copy of The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea.