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North Korea Undercover: Inside the World's Most Secret State
North Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality.
The regime controls the flow of information to its citizens, pouring relentless propaganda through omnipresent loud speakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty and the slightest sign of discontent.
You must bow to Kim Il Sung, the Eternal Leader and to his son, Generalissimo Kim Jong Il. Worship the dead and then hail the living, the Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
North Koreans are told their home is the greatest nation on earth. Big Brother is always watching.
Posing as a university professor, award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney travelled undercover to gain unprecedented access to the world's most secret state. Drawing on his own experiences and his extensive interviews with defectors and other key witnesses, North Korea Undercover pulls back the curtain, providing a rare insight into life there today, examining the country's troubled history and addressing important questions about its uncertain future.
Sweeney's highly engaging, authoritative account illuminates the dark side of the Hermit Kingdom and challenges the West's perception of this paranoid nationalist state.
The regime controls the flow of information to its citizens, pouring relentless propaganda through omnipresent loud speakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty and the slightest sign of discontent.
You must bow to Kim Il Sung, the Eternal Leader and to his son, Generalissimo Kim Jong Il. Worship the dead and then hail the living, the Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
North Koreans are told their home is the greatest nation on earth. Big Brother is always watching.
Posing as a university professor, award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney travelled undercover to gain unprecedented access to the world's most secret state. Drawing on his own experiences and his extensive interviews with defectors and other key witnesses, North Korea Undercover pulls back the curtain, providing a rare insight into life there today, examining the country's troubled history and addressing important questions about its uncertain future.
Sweeney's highly engaging, authoritative account illuminates the dark side of the Hermit Kingdom and challenges the West's perception of this paranoid nationalist state.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 12, 2013
76 people are currently reading
1194 people want to read
About the author
John Sweeney
18 books136 followersJohn Sweeney is an award-winning journalist and author, currently working as an investigative journalist for the BBC's Panorama series. Before joining the BBC in 2001, Sweeney worked for twelve years at The Observer, where he covered wars and revolutions in more than sixty countries including Romania, Algeria, Iraq, Chechnya, Burundi and Bosnia.
In 1996, He was sued for criminal defamation in France by the Barclay brothers, owners of the Daily Telegraph, but the claimants lost their case. At the time, Sweeney worked for the rival newspaper The Observer, and had given an interview on BBC Radio Guernsey alleging that they had been involved in corruption. Since the broadcast could also be heard in northern France, the claimants were able to bring their claim in the French courts. Sweeney was ordered to pay €3000 by the appeal court in Rennes, France
Sweeney spent four years investigating the cases of Sally Clark, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, three women who had been falsely imprisoned for killing their children. Sweeney's investigation helped to clear their names, and led to Sir Roy Meadow, the expert witness whose testimony had proved decisive in their convictions, being temporarily struck off the General Medical Council's medical register. Sweeney received the Paul Foot Award in 2005 in recognition of his work.
He has won several awards throughout his career, including:
1998: What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year prize for reports on human rights abuses in Algeria.
2000: an Emmy Award and a Royal Television Society prize for programs about the Massacre at Krusha e Madhe, Kosovo.
2001: the Amnesty International prize for "Victims of the Torture Train," about human rights abuses in Chechnya.
2003: a Sony Gold award (2003) for Best Radio News program.
2004: a Royal Television Society prize (2004) for "Angela's Hope," a BBC One documentary about a woman wrongly convicted of murdering her three babies.
2005: The Paul Foot Award.
"Scientology and Me", a Panorama investigation into Scientology written and presented by Sweeney, was aired on BBC One on Monday, 14 May 2007. Prior to its airing,video footage filmed by the Church of Scientology was released that showed Sweeney shouting at Scientology representative Tommy Davis during a visit to CCHR's "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death". The clips were sections of a documentary the Church of Scientology's Freedom Magazine TV produced about the BBC Panorama programme. Sweeney remarked that he lost his temper due to days of harassment by Davis and the Church, and a strong personal reaction to the psychiatry exhibit. He had been visited at his hotel by Davis, despite not having shared the address with the Church, and had been followed on several different occasions. Sweeney labelled the clips "attack videos" and others say they were produced to discredit himself and the documentary. The BBC in response aired its own full recording of the incident. Panorama's Editor Sandy Smith explained what happened and how the BBC dealt with the incident in a post on the BBC's Editor's Blog. An internal BBC investigation found that Sweeney's conduct at one point in the filming was clearly inappropriate, but also noted that Sweeney had apologised for his outburst and concluded that as a whole, filming of the documentary had been performed in a proper and fair manner. Later on that same year in the BBC Panorama year in review Sweeney said “..a new generation is making up its own mind, and for that I make no apology”. Only a month and a half later Project Chanology began. This time as a part of a rehearsed joke, Sweeney goes into a similar outburst in January 2009 when being interviewed on Radio 4 about the Tom Cruise film Valkyrie—clearly referring to the episode two years previously. A follow-up Panorama programme also hosted by Sweeney, which at an hour is twice the length of the original one was aired on the 28 September 2010. This documentary contained int
In 1996, He was sued for criminal defamation in France by the Barclay brothers, owners of the Daily Telegraph, but the claimants lost their case. At the time, Sweeney worked for the rival newspaper The Observer, and had given an interview on BBC Radio Guernsey alleging that they had been involved in corruption. Since the broadcast could also be heard in northern France, the claimants were able to bring their claim in the French courts. Sweeney was ordered to pay €3000 by the appeal court in Rennes, France
Sweeney spent four years investigating the cases of Sally Clark, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, three women who had been falsely imprisoned for killing their children. Sweeney's investigation helped to clear their names, and led to Sir Roy Meadow, the expert witness whose testimony had proved decisive in their convictions, being temporarily struck off the General Medical Council's medical register. Sweeney received the Paul Foot Award in 2005 in recognition of his work.
He has won several awards throughout his career, including:
1998: What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year prize for reports on human rights abuses in Algeria.
2000: an Emmy Award and a Royal Television Society prize for programs about the Massacre at Krusha e Madhe, Kosovo.
2001: the Amnesty International prize for "Victims of the Torture Train," about human rights abuses in Chechnya.
2003: a Sony Gold award (2003) for Best Radio News program.
2004: a Royal Television Society prize (2004) for "Angela's Hope," a BBC One documentary about a woman wrongly convicted of murdering her three babies.
2005: The Paul Foot Award.
"Scientology and Me", a Panorama investigation into Scientology written and presented by Sweeney, was aired on BBC One on Monday, 14 May 2007. Prior to its airing,video footage filmed by the Church of Scientology was released that showed Sweeney shouting at Scientology representative Tommy Davis during a visit to CCHR's "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death". The clips were sections of a documentary the Church of Scientology's Freedom Magazine TV produced about the BBC Panorama programme. Sweeney remarked that he lost his temper due to days of harassment by Davis and the Church, and a strong personal reaction to the psychiatry exhibit. He had been visited at his hotel by Davis, despite not having shared the address with the Church, and had been followed on several different occasions. Sweeney labelled the clips "attack videos" and others say they were produced to discredit himself and the documentary. The BBC in response aired its own full recording of the incident. Panorama's Editor Sandy Smith explained what happened and how the BBC dealt with the incident in a post on the BBC's Editor's Blog. An internal BBC investigation found that Sweeney's conduct at one point in the filming was clearly inappropriate, but also noted that Sweeney had apologised for his outburst and concluded that as a whole, filming of the documentary had been performed in a proper and fair manner. Later on that same year in the BBC Panorama year in review Sweeney said “..a new generation is making up its own mind, and for that I make no apology”. Only a month and a half later Project Chanology began. This time as a part of a rehearsed joke, Sweeney goes into a similar outburst in January 2009 when being interviewed on Radio 4 about the Tom Cruise film Valkyrie—clearly referring to the episode two years previously. A follow-up Panorama programme also hosted by Sweeney, which at an hour is twice the length of the original one was aired on the 28 September 2010. This documentary contained int
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
March 16, 2017
Journalists have a knack for making this sort of material more accessible than the average historian but I can't say I learned anything that can't be found on Wikipedia. I was however reminded of things I had forgotten and enjoyed the reading experience. The use of humor was well played and I'm fortunate to be a fan of inappropriate humor.
January 2, 2014
It looks more like a tourist reviewing a place he had visited rather than an undercover story.
In my own opinion, the book does not cover much in depth details of the DPRK regime as compared to other books such as "Nothing to Envy" and "The aquarium of Pyongyang". This book-"North Korea Undercover" merely covers the brief facts on the regime where one can finds easily on the web. There are also no first hand encounter from the Author nor any interviews from Defectors or North Koreans.
However, one thing good I like about this book is that it offers a summarized facts on DPRK and the Author also offer very good resources if a reader would like to read more about a certain article in detail.
Overall, it is still a good book worth reading.
In my own opinion, the book does not cover much in depth details of the DPRK regime as compared to other books such as "Nothing to Envy" and "The aquarium of Pyongyang". This book-"North Korea Undercover" merely covers the brief facts on the regime where one can finds easily on the web. There are also no first hand encounter from the Author nor any interviews from Defectors or North Koreans.
However, one thing good I like about this book is that it offers a summarized facts on DPRK and the Author also offer very good resources if a reader would like to read more about a certain article in detail.
Overall, it is still a good book worth reading.
August 10, 2016
I found this an interesting though depressing read. We don't know exactly what goes on inside North Korea nor how many people starve to death or are jailed for life in cold gulags; but thanks to various journalists and escapees we have a fair idea. John Sweeney of BBC clearly despises the personality cult and brainwashing, having exposed Scientology. He found a similar, profitable but deadlier cult in NK on his undercover visit.
Now, Sweeney did not do anything but pose as a history professor to accompany a group from the London School of Economics, all of whom were told that there would be an undercover journalist and a camera man and filming. However, it has to be said that he would not have got into the country any other way, and he could not put his group in danger. He adds his own interviews with other travellers from diplomats to terrorists.
Sweeney uses his profile to bring the visit and its surreal quality to our attention, liberally spiced with history explaining the three generations of rulers and the ruling class, who know that if the regime falls, they will be first against the wall. As internal travel or communication is banned for most, the people in the capital do not often know how bad life is for those outside, and are probably afraid to ask. With a university and children's camp and hospital all devoid of people, a farm devoid of animals, a giant square empty of visitors, a barren, impoverished landscape and bleak concrete homes, no wildlife or pets or domestic animals to be seen, almost no road vehicles and incongruous luxury for the leader, I'm not alone in likening the scene to Hunger Games.
Sweeney notes that more people now have Chinese mobile phones and can get signals near borders. He tells us that a very few outsiders have chosen to live in NK and that outside women (from Romania and Japan) have been kidnapped to provide them with wives, the NK leaders extolling racial purity. The parts connecting Irish activists and terrorists and Syrian terrorists with NK weaponry, explosives, chemical bombs and counterfeit dollars are far-reaching and gripping reading. If NK didn't have some kind of nuclear threat, which their leaders talk up frequently although they couldn't do very much with it, nobody would put up with this regime. Or would they? Comparisons are made briefly with Mugabe, equally letting his nation depend on outside aid while starving, and stealing from, the people.
You may take a few chapters to really get into this book, but it becomes absorbing and harrowing reading.
Now, Sweeney did not do anything but pose as a history professor to accompany a group from the London School of Economics, all of whom were told that there would be an undercover journalist and a camera man and filming. However, it has to be said that he would not have got into the country any other way, and he could not put his group in danger. He adds his own interviews with other travellers from diplomats to terrorists.
Sweeney uses his profile to bring the visit and its surreal quality to our attention, liberally spiced with history explaining the three generations of rulers and the ruling class, who know that if the regime falls, they will be first against the wall. As internal travel or communication is banned for most, the people in the capital do not often know how bad life is for those outside, and are probably afraid to ask. With a university and children's camp and hospital all devoid of people, a farm devoid of animals, a giant square empty of visitors, a barren, impoverished landscape and bleak concrete homes, no wildlife or pets or domestic animals to be seen, almost no road vehicles and incongruous luxury for the leader, I'm not alone in likening the scene to Hunger Games.
Sweeney notes that more people now have Chinese mobile phones and can get signals near borders. He tells us that a very few outsiders have chosen to live in NK and that outside women (from Romania and Japan) have been kidnapped to provide them with wives, the NK leaders extolling racial purity. The parts connecting Irish activists and terrorists and Syrian terrorists with NK weaponry, explosives, chemical bombs and counterfeit dollars are far-reaching and gripping reading. If NK didn't have some kind of nuclear threat, which their leaders talk up frequently although they couldn't do very much with it, nobody would put up with this regime. Or would they? Comparisons are made briefly with Mugabe, equally letting his nation depend on outside aid while starving, and stealing from, the people.
You may take a few chapters to really get into this book, but it becomes absorbing and harrowing reading.
December 27, 2015
I have varying thoughts. North Korea Undercover started out really well, with catchy writing and a promising narrative. I certainly agree with him that North Korea is an evil regime and I appreciated the historical and cultural summary.
The analysis bored me, however. Sweeney is immensely repetitive. He repeats the same stories and facts over and over. He occasionally fleshes the stories out near the end of the book, but by that point I had fully chewed over the information and was done with it. I didn't want a rehash. Perhaps the book was simply too long. It reminded me of a research paper, or a debate tournament, where you pull out your favorite piece of evidence and repeat it a few times to flesh out your word count. Unfortunately, that doesn't work so well chapter after chapter.
Sweeney has also had a lot of life experience he hints the reader should be familiar with. He talks about all his previous adventures in "Orwellian" regimes. The fact is, I have no idea who he is and some of his historical references were over my head. In my lifetime, there has been no Czechoslovakia*, yet he references the country frequently.
He references George Orwell way, way too much. The joke about the regime not having 1984 was funny only so many times. His downright disappointment that the library (possibly) contained Animal Farm was weirdly at odds with his previous statements.
I felt like this could have been a very good book. It started out well. Sweeney just didn't have enough content to keep it up. It picks up by the end, but the middle was mostly same-old.
It wasn't a bad book. I wouldn't say don't read it. It is certainly informative and I have a greater knowledge of North Korea because of it. However, the author falls into the trap of promoting his experience as the end all be all, a sure turnoff for me.
*It is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia for those of you glancing at your globes.
The analysis bored me, however. Sweeney is immensely repetitive. He repeats the same stories and facts over and over. He occasionally fleshes the stories out near the end of the book, but by that point I had fully chewed over the information and was done with it. I didn't want a rehash. Perhaps the book was simply too long. It reminded me of a research paper, or a debate tournament, where you pull out your favorite piece of evidence and repeat it a few times to flesh out your word count. Unfortunately, that doesn't work so well chapter after chapter.
Sweeney has also had a lot of life experience he hints the reader should be familiar with. He talks about all his previous adventures in "Orwellian" regimes. The fact is, I have no idea who he is and some of his historical references were over my head. In my lifetime, there has been no Czechoslovakia*, yet he references the country frequently.
He references George Orwell way, way too much. The joke about the regime not having 1984 was funny only so many times. His downright disappointment that the library (possibly) contained Animal Farm was weirdly at odds with his previous statements.
I felt like this could have been a very good book. It started out well. Sweeney just didn't have enough content to keep it up. It picks up by the end, but the middle was mostly same-old.
It wasn't a bad book. I wouldn't say don't read it. It is certainly informative and I have a greater knowledge of North Korea because of it. However, the author falls into the trap of promoting his experience as the end all be all, a sure turnoff for me.
*It is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia for those of you glancing at your globes.
October 15, 2025
This book is an interesting field guide to what you could expect to see as a foreigner tourist in North Korea and deals very little with what real citizens are experiencing in this country. As such, if I could only pick one book on this topic this would not be my first choice. That being said, since very few of us will ever be a tourist in North Korea, this certainly has its place for those who are curious. I found it very well written and intriguing.
October 25, 2017
Great book! Highly interesting. Extremely well written with sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humor. It’s such a weird, weird world. And sad. It’s true. Highly recommended!
May 30, 2023
The title is misleading: you may think that the author was a secret agent/spy who stayed inside North Korea for some time and investigated it under a special James-Bond-ish mission (at least I was under such an impression when I picked the book up). No, of course not. The author indeed was in North Korea, but it was within a regular government-approved tourist/journalist visit, where John Sweeney and his companions were allowed to look at the usual propaganda shit under strict supervision (only John Sweeney did not tell them who he really was at the time, because he would probably not be so welcome then…).
Nevertheless, this book tells a lot of very interesting and important things about North Korea, but all this was not learned by the author during his visit to North Korea, of course. This book is a thorough investigation of North Korea as a state based on the existing evidence from various researchers, defectors, journalists (the author provides direct references to all the sources of information he used).
Why do we need such a book? Well, mostly because of the author’s personal touch to the story. He is very ironic and often even vitriolic but he is also extremely shrewd and performs deep analysis of the subjects he is interested in. John Sweeney is a famous British investigative journalist who specializes in writing about some of the most difficult topics of our modern history.
I’ll list some of his books:
“The Life and Evil Times of Nicolae Ceausescu” (1991)
“Trading With the Enemy: Britain’s Arming of Iraq” (1993)
“Big Daddy: Lukashenka, Tyrant of Belarus” (2012)
“The Church of Fear: Inside The Weird World of Scientology” (2013)
“North Korea Undercover: Inside The World’s Most Secret State” (2013)
“Killer in the Kremlin: The Explosive Account of Putin’s Reign of Terror” (2022)
Yeah, prolific and intense, as you can see.
Naturally, he is all inside our current war now — he is visiting the hottest places, including Бахмут (he was making a documentary movie, “The Eastern Front: Terror & Torture in Ukraine,” that was released just recently, and maybe he will also write a book about the war as well), he is in Kyiv right now and reporting about it almost every day on his twitter (finishing all his short videos with the words “Vladimir Putin: do fuck off!”), he writes articles about it for many media, and he is supporting us and investigating this war as vehemently and passionately as everything he does.
So, he is a cool guy, and I would be very interested to see what he would make out of this war.
Back to this book.
It’s great, really. Again, I thought that I already knew the most basic things about North Korea, and expected that this book would mostly repeat and maybe clarify additionally everything I already know. Wrong! I actually learned a lot of fascinating things.
Probably my favorite (the most mind-blowing) piece of information I read here is how North Korea kidnaps foreigners on a regular basis and forces them to live in their blessed country for the rest of their lives — just because it can! All this is fucking unbelievable, but I googled some of the information (persons, events, etc.) John Sweeney talks about, and yes, all this is totally true and even more incredible when you try to investigate the subject deeper.
“The kidnapping of foreigners began in 1977, as Kim the Second’s sway in the regime grew. But Kim Il Sung had survived in Manchuria in the late 1930s by kidnapping the family members of rich farmers, demanding ransoms. Kidnapping was old Kim family business. Thirteen of the known kidnap victims were Japanese, plucked from ordinary lives, walking home at night, going for a stroll on the beach, then suddenly pinioned by strangers, forced into a small boat and down the hatch of a North Korean submarine or fishing boat, only to reappear in Pyongyang, to start a new life in absolute terror. Some were from Lebanon, Thailand, ordinary people engulfed by a power acting with no accountability.
Why kidnap foreigners? The most likely explanation is the regime’s obsession with espionage. Professor Yoichi Shimada of Fukui University in Japan told a US Congress Human Rights sub-committee in 2006: ‘North Korean defectors have told us that in 1976 Kim Jong Il issued a secret order to use foreign nationals more systematically and thereby improve the quality of North Korean spy activities. He dubbed it “localization of spy education”.’ The professor suggested six reasons for the kidnapping: ‘North Korea appears to abduct foreign citizens in order to eliminate hapless witnesses who happened to run into North Korean agents in action; steal victims’ identities; force abductees to teach their local language and customs to North Korean agents; brain wash them into secret agents; use abductees’ expertise; use abductees as spouses for defectors or other abductees.’”
Another very interesting and quite new for me topic was the severe internal racism of North Korea as a society and a state. In this sense, it is a purely “fascist” state, by the way, but it is not recognized as such because it is very closed and we have almost zero information about this aspect of their mindset, being preoccupied with much more obvious and scary problems of this country. I have heard about it somewhere before, but only fleetingly, and now John Sweeney provides a good look into the problem.
“The question that troubles many Pyongyangologists is: how has North Korea survived long after, say, the state that Stalin built was dead? The answer, perhaps, is that North Korea has outlived the Soviet Union because it was never truly Communist in the first place, but owes its stability to its roots in Korean feudalism and racism. Also, Stalinism was itself not just about command economy and the personality cult, but borrowed heavily from Russian traditionalism and xenophobia, so the Kimist jump from thereto racism is not that big a leap.”
So yeah, awesome book!
However, I wouldn’t recommend it as your first reading about North Korea and maybe not as part of “beginner-level” reading about it overall. It’s complex, it’s dynamic, it’s full of heavy politics sometimes, and it’s pretty serious overall, despite a seemingly jesting style (which is mostly a scathing irony) in every John Sweeney’s word. This is a very good example of a “highly opinionated” but 100% truthful and illuminating work of journalism: you may not like it if you have some problems with the author’s style but it does not make the book less significant.
Nevertheless, this book tells a lot of very interesting and important things about North Korea, but all this was not learned by the author during his visit to North Korea, of course. This book is a thorough investigation of North Korea as a state based on the existing evidence from various researchers, defectors, journalists (the author provides direct references to all the sources of information he used).
Why do we need such a book? Well, mostly because of the author’s personal touch to the story. He is very ironic and often even vitriolic but he is also extremely shrewd and performs deep analysis of the subjects he is interested in. John Sweeney is a famous British investigative journalist who specializes in writing about some of the most difficult topics of our modern history.
I’ll list some of his books:
“The Life and Evil Times of Nicolae Ceausescu” (1991)
“Trading With the Enemy: Britain’s Arming of Iraq” (1993)
“Big Daddy: Lukashenka, Tyrant of Belarus” (2012)
“The Church of Fear: Inside The Weird World of Scientology” (2013)
“North Korea Undercover: Inside The World’s Most Secret State” (2013)
“Killer in the Kremlin: The Explosive Account of Putin’s Reign of Terror” (2022)
Yeah, prolific and intense, as you can see.
Naturally, he is all inside our current war now — he is visiting the hottest places, including Бахмут (he was making a documentary movie, “The Eastern Front: Terror & Torture in Ukraine,” that was released just recently, and maybe he will also write a book about the war as well), he is in Kyiv right now and reporting about it almost every day on his twitter (finishing all his short videos with the words “Vladimir Putin: do fuck off!”), he writes articles about it for many media, and he is supporting us and investigating this war as vehemently and passionately as everything he does.
So, he is a cool guy, and I would be very interested to see what he would make out of this war.
Back to this book.
It’s great, really. Again, I thought that I already knew the most basic things about North Korea, and expected that this book would mostly repeat and maybe clarify additionally everything I already know. Wrong! I actually learned a lot of fascinating things.
Probably my favorite (the most mind-blowing) piece of information I read here is how North Korea kidnaps foreigners on a regular basis and forces them to live in their blessed country for the rest of their lives — just because it can! All this is fucking unbelievable, but I googled some of the information (persons, events, etc.) John Sweeney talks about, and yes, all this is totally true and even more incredible when you try to investigate the subject deeper.
“The kidnapping of foreigners began in 1977, as Kim the Second’s sway in the regime grew. But Kim Il Sung had survived in Manchuria in the late 1930s by kidnapping the family members of rich farmers, demanding ransoms. Kidnapping was old Kim family business. Thirteen of the known kidnap victims were Japanese, plucked from ordinary lives, walking home at night, going for a stroll on the beach, then suddenly pinioned by strangers, forced into a small boat and down the hatch of a North Korean submarine or fishing boat, only to reappear in Pyongyang, to start a new life in absolute terror. Some were from Lebanon, Thailand, ordinary people engulfed by a power acting with no accountability.
Why kidnap foreigners? The most likely explanation is the regime’s obsession with espionage. Professor Yoichi Shimada of Fukui University in Japan told a US Congress Human Rights sub-committee in 2006: ‘North Korean defectors have told us that in 1976 Kim Jong Il issued a secret order to use foreign nationals more systematically and thereby improve the quality of North Korean spy activities. He dubbed it “localization of spy education”.’ The professor suggested six reasons for the kidnapping: ‘North Korea appears to abduct foreign citizens in order to eliminate hapless witnesses who happened to run into North Korean agents in action; steal victims’ identities; force abductees to teach their local language and customs to North Korean agents; brain wash them into secret agents; use abductees’ expertise; use abductees as spouses for defectors or other abductees.’”
Another very interesting and quite new for me topic was the severe internal racism of North Korea as a society and a state. In this sense, it is a purely “fascist” state, by the way, but it is not recognized as such because it is very closed and we have almost zero information about this aspect of their mindset, being preoccupied with much more obvious and scary problems of this country. I have heard about it somewhere before, but only fleetingly, and now John Sweeney provides a good look into the problem.
“The question that troubles many Pyongyangologists is: how has North Korea survived long after, say, the state that Stalin built was dead? The answer, perhaps, is that North Korea has outlived the Soviet Union because it was never truly Communist in the first place, but owes its stability to its roots in Korean feudalism and racism. Also, Stalinism was itself not just about command economy and the personality cult, but borrowed heavily from Russian traditionalism and xenophobia, so the Kimist jump from thereto racism is not that big a leap.”
So yeah, awesome book!
However, I wouldn’t recommend it as your first reading about North Korea and maybe not as part of “beginner-level” reading about it overall. It’s complex, it’s dynamic, it’s full of heavy politics sometimes, and it’s pretty serious overall, despite a seemingly jesting style (which is mostly a scathing irony) in every John Sweeney’s word. This is a very good example of a “highly opinionated” but 100% truthful and illuminating work of journalism: you may not like it if you have some problems with the author’s style but it does not make the book less significant.
November 1, 2022
Muszę przyznać, że długo zastanawiałam się pomiędzy jedną a dwiema gwiazdkami.
Książka w 1/4 rzeczywiście jest nawet porządnym reportażem o KRLD, w 1/4 promocją innych dzieł autora, w 1/4 powtórzeniami największych stereotypów dotyczących Korei Północnej (ubranych w bardzo żenujące żarty) i w 1/4 całkowitym odbieganiem od tematu (ale hej, dużo można się dowiedzieć o IRA, ale także innych reżimach totalitarnych z przeszłości).
Najbardziej jestem zaskoczona językiem i sposobem pisania autora, który ma być wyśmienitym (!!!) brytyjskim dziennikarzem. W kilku momentach musiałam, aż zamknąć książkę z zażenowania. Nie oczekuję szacunku do Kimów (chociaż inni wymienieni przez Sweeneya dyktatorzy najwyraźniej się nim cieszą), ale nie spotkałam się jeszcze w książce non-fiction określeniami typu: "zombie", "zły sobowtór elvisa", "Kim Gruby i Grubszy", "Bóg gruby chłopiec Kim".
Jeśli jesteś czytelnikiem, który wyrósł z gimnazjalnego humoru typu "twoja stara", nie jest to książka dla ciebie.
Książka w 1/4 rzeczywiście jest nawet porządnym reportażem o KRLD, w 1/4 promocją innych dzieł autora, w 1/4 powtórzeniami największych stereotypów dotyczących Korei Północnej (ubranych w bardzo żenujące żarty) i w 1/4 całkowitym odbieganiem od tematu (ale hej, dużo można się dowiedzieć o IRA, ale także innych reżimach totalitarnych z przeszłości).
Najbardziej jestem zaskoczona językiem i sposobem pisania autora, który ma być wyśmienitym (!!!) brytyjskim dziennikarzem. W kilku momentach musiałam, aż zamknąć książkę z zażenowania. Nie oczekuję szacunku do Kimów (chociaż inni wymienieni przez Sweeneya dyktatorzy najwyraźniej się nim cieszą), ale nie spotkałam się jeszcze w książce non-fiction określeniami typu: "zombie", "zły sobowtór elvisa", "Kim Gruby i Grubszy", "Bóg gruby chłopiec Kim".
Jeśli jesteś czytelnikiem, który wyrósł z gimnazjalnego humoru typu "twoja stara", nie jest to książka dla ciebie.
September 16, 2021
A 10 and a half hour unabridged audiobook.
Finely written account of a journalist masquerading as a history professor and tourist in North Korea, which includes interesting accounts of other persons who escaped there or were these as diplomats and such.
I really liked this book. It is the best book on North Korea I've come across in years.
Finely written account of a journalist masquerading as a history professor and tourist in North Korea, which includes interesting accounts of other persons who escaped there or were these as diplomats and such.
I really liked this book. It is the best book on North Korea I've come across in years.
October 10, 2015
2.5 stars for readability. 1.5 stars for content.
North Korea always fascinates. When I hear about new books on the subject I generally order copies from the library. This one doesn't live up to its billing. It doesn't contribute to our knowledge of North Korea, and there's nothing "undercover" about it, save for the author passing himself off to NK authorities as a teacher rather than a journalist.
North Korea Undercover is little more than a diary of a tourist visit to Pyongyang, where Sweeney's group gets the full Potemkin village experience. Sweeney goes along with the orders and instructions of his North Korean minders, and apart from one unescorted early-morning foray outside his hotel to photograph some dreary apartment flats on the other side of a barbed wire fence, he does not rebel. He does not get the goods. Every "revelation" in his book is a known known, culled from other books or internet sites.
The one worthwhile thing Sweeney does here is to combat the suggestion that North Korea was ever a workers' paradise, or that Kim Il Sung wasn't so bad. I've seen this notion advanced or hinted at in other studies of North Korea. It usually takes the form of stating how much better off North Korea was than South Korea in the 1960s and 70s, and how much worse Kim Il Sung's successors, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, have been in terms of starving the people, setting up gulags, and inculcating cults of personality. No. None of that is true. North Korea has always sucked. It has never been economically viable. Korea began as a primitive caste society, and the north has not advanced to this day. Kim Il Sung starved the peasants decades before Kim Jong Il did. His war against South Korea was a disaster, and as soon as it was over he started killing and imprisoning anyone who might call him to account for it some day. By the middle 1950s, even Kim Il Sung's Stalinist handlers in the USSR were appalled at the cult of personality he had set up. It's good to be reminded of these facts, and I thank Sweeney for doing it.
Otherwise? I could have watched a couple of YouTube videos about North Korea and learned more. I'm particularly irritated with one photo. Like most readers, I scanned the color photo pages in the middle of the book before I started to read. One photo caught my eye. It shows what appear to be labor camp prisoners at work behind a barbed wire fence. I wondered how Sweeney came to have a photo like this, because up to now everything I've read says there are no such photos, and tourist groups are never allowed within a hundred miles of any NK prison camp. One of the reasons I didn't throw the book across the room after one or two chapters was to find out how Sweeney got this photo.
And he never said. Well, fuck you, Mr. Sweeney.
North Korea always fascinates. When I hear about new books on the subject I generally order copies from the library. This one doesn't live up to its billing. It doesn't contribute to our knowledge of North Korea, and there's nothing "undercover" about it, save for the author passing himself off to NK authorities as a teacher rather than a journalist.
North Korea Undercover is little more than a diary of a tourist visit to Pyongyang, where Sweeney's group gets the full Potemkin village experience. Sweeney goes along with the orders and instructions of his North Korean minders, and apart from one unescorted early-morning foray outside his hotel to photograph some dreary apartment flats on the other side of a barbed wire fence, he does not rebel. He does not get the goods. Every "revelation" in his book is a known known, culled from other books or internet sites.
The one worthwhile thing Sweeney does here is to combat the suggestion that North Korea was ever a workers' paradise, or that Kim Il Sung wasn't so bad. I've seen this notion advanced or hinted at in other studies of North Korea. It usually takes the form of stating how much better off North Korea was than South Korea in the 1960s and 70s, and how much worse Kim Il Sung's successors, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, have been in terms of starving the people, setting up gulags, and inculcating cults of personality. No. None of that is true. North Korea has always sucked. It has never been economically viable. Korea began as a primitive caste society, and the north has not advanced to this day. Kim Il Sung starved the peasants decades before Kim Jong Il did. His war against South Korea was a disaster, and as soon as it was over he started killing and imprisoning anyone who might call him to account for it some day. By the middle 1950s, even Kim Il Sung's Stalinist handlers in the USSR were appalled at the cult of personality he had set up. It's good to be reminded of these facts, and I thank Sweeney for doing it.
Otherwise? I could have watched a couple of YouTube videos about North Korea and learned more. I'm particularly irritated with one photo. Like most readers, I scanned the color photo pages in the middle of the book before I started to read. One photo caught my eye. It shows what appear to be labor camp prisoners at work behind a barbed wire fence. I wondered how Sweeney came to have a photo like this, because up to now everything I've read says there are no such photos, and tourist groups are never allowed within a hundred miles of any NK prison camp. One of the reasons I didn't throw the book across the room after one or two chapters was to find out how Sweeney got this photo.
And he never said. Well, fuck you, Mr. Sweeney.
March 8, 2014
For an undercover investigative journalist in the strangest country on the planet, John Sweeney has managed to write an incredibly dry book. He has spent little time on his own experience, preferring instead to regurgitate numerous quotes and paraphrase at length from other books about North Korea. It's quite an achievement to illegally enter the world's most dangerous, least democratic country and film the regime; even more so to do that and then make it sound dull and dry!
July 25, 2015
It was tough to decide what to rate this one; at various points in the book, my opinion veered anywhere from 2 to 4 stars. Overall, though, I liked the book, even loved it in a few places.
The good: Sweeney has an amazing talent to interview people in connection with North Korea that provided some fascinating stories. The chapter where he talks with two guys from the IRA who trained in North Korea before getting kicked out for bad behavior? Awesome, interesting, and way too brief for how interesting it was. (I also really liked his phonetic rendition of the one subject's accent 'Jaysus Christ;' not only was it evocative, but it reminded me of a co-worker who pronounced it much the same way!)
The other thing that I really appreciate about Sweeney is that he's not content to sit back and report the facts in a detached, clinical fashion. The shit he sees gets to him and he isn't shy about sharing those feelings. It's an honest and inspiring approach to the humanitarian disaster that exists to this day and Sweeney's honest anger inspired some deep reflection as I read. What will the Western world say when the Kim regime finally falls and we have to all admit we stood by and did nothing to prevent it? Certainly, the geopolitical situation is very complicated, but still...
Getting back to the book, then.
At his best, Sweeney really shares his feelings on what he's seeing. However, at times he wanders into sarcasm or denigration of the regime and while such a terrible government certainly doesn't deserve accolades or gentle treatment, Sweeney's mockery and satirization don't come across as well as say, Christopher Hitchens, whose memory is invoked a few times. Sweeney definitely isn't the Hitch when it comes to biting prose and in my opinion, he shouldn't try to be, even if there's no shame in being compared to Hitchens unsuccessfully. But Sweeney's best moments are his most honest ones about his personal experience, not his myriad ways of insulting the Kims (Fat Boy Kim and Bad Elvis Kim, etc). With so much of the satire and sarcasm front-loaded in the first few chapters, it can be tough to want to stick with the book, but if you do, your efforts will be rewarded.
The good: Sweeney has an amazing talent to interview people in connection with North Korea that provided some fascinating stories. The chapter where he talks with two guys from the IRA who trained in North Korea before getting kicked out for bad behavior? Awesome, interesting, and way too brief for how interesting it was. (I also really liked his phonetic rendition of the one subject's accent 'Jaysus Christ;' not only was it evocative, but it reminded me of a co-worker who pronounced it much the same way!)
The other thing that I really appreciate about Sweeney is that he's not content to sit back and report the facts in a detached, clinical fashion. The shit he sees gets to him and he isn't shy about sharing those feelings. It's an honest and inspiring approach to the humanitarian disaster that exists to this day and Sweeney's honest anger inspired some deep reflection as I read. What will the Western world say when the Kim regime finally falls and we have to all admit we stood by and did nothing to prevent it? Certainly, the geopolitical situation is very complicated, but still...
Getting back to the book, then.
At his best, Sweeney really shares his feelings on what he's seeing. However, at times he wanders into sarcasm or denigration of the regime and while such a terrible government certainly doesn't deserve accolades or gentle treatment, Sweeney's mockery and satirization don't come across as well as say, Christopher Hitchens, whose memory is invoked a few times. Sweeney definitely isn't the Hitch when it comes to biting prose and in my opinion, he shouldn't try to be, even if there's no shame in being compared to Hitchens unsuccessfully. But Sweeney's best moments are his most honest ones about his personal experience, not his myriad ways of insulting the Kims (Fat Boy Kim and Bad Elvis Kim, etc). With so much of the satire and sarcasm front-loaded in the first few chapters, it can be tough to want to stick with the book, but if you do, your efforts will be rewarded.
December 28, 2015
I bought this book 8 months ago after reading a fantastic book - "The Aquariums of Pyongyang", which is a memoir of the ten year imprisonment of a young boy in a North Korean concentration camp before he made his escape.
I wanted to know more about North Korea after reading that book and when I saw "North Korea Undercover", which is seemingly about a BBC journalist travelling undercover to North Korea, I was hooked and bought the book.
Unfortunately, that probably was the best part of the book for me - the anticipation of how good this book would be. As I started reading, I didn't understand how the author managed to talk trash for 367 pages. Each page was a struggle, and even at 333 pages I almost gave up reading.
The novel reads like a horrible tabloid magazine. The author is judgemental and derogatory. His summary of his whole trip could have been wrapped up in a few pages. However, instead he decided to do Internet research and write pages upon pages of "authoritative" information on North Korea. At one point his reference is a Facebook website, page 307.
The upside was that there were 8 full pages of colour pictures. Combined with the initial anticipation I had before opening the book; I am still highly uncertain it is worthy of the 10GBP it sold for, and of the 8 months it spent sitting in my storage space.
My only incentive to complete the book was to tell myself that I could write this review at the end. Conclusion? Please stay away unless you want some decoration for your bookshelf.
I wanted to know more about North Korea after reading that book and when I saw "North Korea Undercover", which is seemingly about a BBC journalist travelling undercover to North Korea, I was hooked and bought the book.
Unfortunately, that probably was the best part of the book for me - the anticipation of how good this book would be. As I started reading, I didn't understand how the author managed to talk trash for 367 pages. Each page was a struggle, and even at 333 pages I almost gave up reading.
The novel reads like a horrible tabloid magazine. The author is judgemental and derogatory. His summary of his whole trip could have been wrapped up in a few pages. However, instead he decided to do Internet research and write pages upon pages of "authoritative" information on North Korea. At one point his reference is a Facebook website, page 307.
The upside was that there were 8 full pages of colour pictures. Combined with the initial anticipation I had before opening the book; I am still highly uncertain it is worthy of the 10GBP it sold for, and of the 8 months it spent sitting in my storage space.
My only incentive to complete the book was to tell myself that I could write this review at the end. Conclusion? Please stay away unless you want some decoration for your bookshelf.
October 3, 2017
Given what’s going on in our world today, we should all educate ourselves on the world’s most secret state. North Korea Undercover would be a timely read for Halloween, only this is real life, and Kim Jong Un’s vileness should not be underestimated. Part exposé, part travelogue, the author writes of his time in North Korea posing as a history professor. He mixes his observations with other first-hand accounts of those once inside who lived to tell about it. Bottom line… the people of North Korea are starving, brainwashed, and not allowed to leave without risk of dire consequences to family members. Disabled adults are nonexistent and likely exterminated as babies. With no news, no internet, no life outside worshiping Kim Jong Un and dead tyrants (who even in death are treated better than regular citizens), North Koreans know no other way. Anyone briefly allowed inside is shown a carefully curated and extremely eerie world. Farms have no animals, hospitals have with no patients, schools have no students. Sweeney’s book, while dry at times, provides a terrifying look at the country and madman “we” have engaged in a twitter war. And I’ll say no more. Big Brother, you know.
This book made me: horrified. If you are reading this, stop right now and thank your lucky stars you weren’t born in North Korea.
My favorite line: “Power magnifies faults. Or as the old Swahili proverbs has it, the higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more you can see his bottom. Mood changes, whims, paranoid insecurity, and absolute power are a bad mix.”
This book made me: horrified. If you are reading this, stop right now and thank your lucky stars you weren’t born in North Korea.
My favorite line: “Power magnifies faults. Or as the old Swahili proverbs has it, the higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more you can see his bottom. Mood changes, whims, paranoid insecurity, and absolute power are a bad mix.”
November 11, 2015
Worst non fiction book that I have ever read. Terrible is an understatement. The writing is all over the place, many sentences simply do not translate very well, and to top it off the content is more like a tourist log than any type of undercover expose.
I am not sure who John Sweeney's target audience is. Maybe that is why it is so bad as I don't think he has one. The only person who could remotely find value in this book would be a former Korean who has fled to the nether regions of the world.
I am not sure who John Sweeney's target audience is. Maybe that is why it is so bad as I don't think he has one. The only person who could remotely find value in this book would be a former Korean who has fled to the nether regions of the world.
April 26, 2018
We all think we know how bad the situation is in North Korea, however this is a very eye-opening read. The picture is grim. The brainwashing of the people and the severe impact that has had on the population is particularly disturbing. The rule of an sadistic dictator is bad enough, but to be brainwashed to think this the best possible way to live and that life is completely normal is terrifying. Read this and begin to understand the true terror of the Kim dictatorship.
February 5, 2017
This book has a misappropriate title.It should be Stories from North Korea.John Sweeney talks about his travel less and more about defectors.Many a page are wasted in facts known to the world already.Moreover a whole chapter on IRA is added for no reason.I will give it two stars.The one extra star is for information in the book.
March 15, 2016
Author's travel narrative style rivals that of Bill Bryson. Unfortunately, the excellent narration didn't prevent me from losing interest regularly during the journalistic (second-hand) reports of conditions there.
May 5, 2018
I didn’t realize how little I know about this country. This book has inspired me to continue to research and seek additional information about North Korea and read historical accounts of other dictatorships.
August 4, 2020
2.5 stars.
North Korea is one of the most intriguing places on earth. It’s a real life dystopia, and honestly during parts of this book I would have sworn Orwell was a fortune teller.
I’m just not sure Sweeney was the right person to tell its stories. He seems to leap-frog between concepts and theories, citing hundreds of other researchers and essentially recommending you go read their books instead. Advice I probably should’ve taken.
Some stories (like the one about Kim Jong Un’s former lover, who ‘rose from the dead’) trail off just as they’re getting interesting, with no further explanation. And a lot of prior knowledge is assumed on the readers’ part - you’re expected to know a lot of communist history, a lot of geography, and a lot about terrorism. It’s definitely not a primer.
And as for Sweeney’s own research? There... wasn’t much of it, at least on a firsthand basis. I wouldn’t say he’s been undercover at all. He posed as a history professor and went on a tourist jaunt across the country, without doing a lot of digging at all. I’d rather have gone myself.
The last chapter offered some insight into how the regime could fall, which was interesting, but overall there wasn’t enough detail about the current state of the DPRK or enough explanation about certain bits (why no students at the universities? How are hospital patients really treated?). I’ve got more answers from YouTube clips.
North Korea is one of the most intriguing places on earth. It’s a real life dystopia, and honestly during parts of this book I would have sworn Orwell was a fortune teller.
I’m just not sure Sweeney was the right person to tell its stories. He seems to leap-frog between concepts and theories, citing hundreds of other researchers and essentially recommending you go read their books instead. Advice I probably should’ve taken.
Some stories (like the one about Kim Jong Un’s former lover, who ‘rose from the dead’) trail off just as they’re getting interesting, with no further explanation. And a lot of prior knowledge is assumed on the readers’ part - you’re expected to know a lot of communist history, a lot of geography, and a lot about terrorism. It’s definitely not a primer.
And as for Sweeney’s own research? There... wasn’t much of it, at least on a firsthand basis. I wouldn’t say he’s been undercover at all. He posed as a history professor and went on a tourist jaunt across the country, without doing a lot of digging at all. I’d rather have gone myself.
The last chapter offered some insight into how the regime could fall, which was interesting, but overall there wasn’t enough detail about the current state of the DPRK or enough explanation about certain bits (why no students at the universities? How are hospital patients really treated?). I’ve got more answers from YouTube clips.
December 4, 2023
I don't often write full reviews. Many other people do, so I figure my star rating is enough... but I just felt compelled to warn anyone with a serious curiosity about North Korea to not waste their time on this book.
John Sweeney reminds me of a frat boy on a spring break trip.. the way that he carries himself both in North Korea, and the way he portrays himself and his fellow tourists in this book. There's nothing "undercover" about this book. He talks about being on a trip to DPRK and seeing things that any other tourist approved to go to North Korea would see.... mixed in with some Wikipedia-worthy historical commentary.
He is irreverent to the point of being juvenile. Yes, John... we know you hate the Kims and the government there... everyone does... but your comments and behaviors remind me of something that my teenage son and his buddies would do/say... except they would probably be more mature about it.
And then there's the language.. he uses profanities in context of the "speaker", but it feels like he just throws this in for shock value... and nothing is gained by using it. Again, just feels juvenile
If you really want to read a book that gives good information about what it's like to live in the DPRK under the Kims, read Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick... it won't be a waste of your time, like this book is.
John Sweeney reminds me of a frat boy on a spring break trip.. the way that he carries himself both in North Korea, and the way he portrays himself and his fellow tourists in this book. There's nothing "undercover" about this book. He talks about being on a trip to DPRK and seeing things that any other tourist approved to go to North Korea would see.... mixed in with some Wikipedia-worthy historical commentary.
He is irreverent to the point of being juvenile. Yes, John... we know you hate the Kims and the government there... everyone does... but your comments and behaviors remind me of something that my teenage son and his buddies would do/say... except they would probably be more mature about it.
And then there's the language.. he uses profanities in context of the "speaker", but it feels like he just throws this in for shock value... and nothing is gained by using it. Again, just feels juvenile
If you really want to read a book that gives good information about what it's like to live in the DPRK under the Kims, read Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick... it won't be a waste of your time, like this book is.
January 9, 2018
Highly recommend this book if you are looking for an insight into North Korea written in layman's terms.
July 10, 2024
Typ dosłownie napisał ze północni koreanczycy są zacofani co nie maja na śniadanie jajek i bekonu (typ jest brytolem)
September 28, 2025
just trying to be a well-rounded reader who can range from Emily Henry rom-com to a super light read about the horrors of North Korea #casual
August 30, 2017
While North Korea is not a place that lends itself to levity, John Sweeney brings his very British wit to bear on the absurdity that is the Kim dynasty. The book could be seen as a beginner's guide to the country and its history, and paints a picture in broad strokes through Sweeney's first hand experiences and interviews with escaped North Koreans, diplomats, and other political figures.
The book could have used another round of edits, as Sweeney tends to repeat himself, but we can forgive him his tics. He's one of those particularly fearless journalists, inserting himself into all sorts of places he isn't welcome (various dictatorships, the Church of Scientology, etc.). Nonetheless he restrains himself in North Korea, posing as a professor chaperoning a group of students.
Especially interesting are Sweeney remarks on the unreality of the tourist experience. Every visitor is constantly escorted, and their every experience is stage managed. The museums (all, of course, about the Kims) are full of giant Kim statues - Kims Il Sung and Jong Il, that is - but empty of visitors. There are no people with any disabilities. The crowds at the lackluster circus clap in eerie unison. Anyone who dies in a "traffic accident" can be assumed assassinated, since there are barely any vehicles on the road. The only places with reliable electricity are the massive mausoleum with the preserved Kim corpses and the electric fence barring the way to South Korea.
Sweeney offers plenty of further reading on the gulag, though warns the books can be very difficult
to read, and gives a thorough history of the nationwide enslavement Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have created and upheld through isolation brainwashing. It's just as creepy and horrible as you'd expect, if not more so. I was shocked to learn that institutions like the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation rely on information provided by the North Korean government to make decisions about relief and healthcare measures. That anyone takes anything on faith from this unhinged despot just floors me - but what else can they go by? What will we see as satellite imagery brings us closer and closer to seeing the world?
The book is simultaneously surreal and chilling, and though it's a few years out of date, the only thing that's changed is the temperature of the rhetoric. Sweeney's take on the possibility of nuclear war? Unlikely. He predicts that Kim Jong Un will continue his brinkmanship without end, primarily to put on a show for fellow North Koreans. But he must know, says Sweeney, that an attack will prompt a counterattack, and he is hopelessly outgunned in any actual conflict. Kim Jong Un will talk, but doesn't want to take a chance on actually losing the power he's grown accustomed to. We must hope he's an evil genius and not a true madman.
If Sweeney's right, we can only hope that the US won't allow itself to be provoked by words. Hardly a comforting thought!
The book could have used another round of edits, as Sweeney tends to repeat himself, but we can forgive him his tics. He's one of those particularly fearless journalists, inserting himself into all sorts of places he isn't welcome (various dictatorships, the Church of Scientology, etc.). Nonetheless he restrains himself in North Korea, posing as a professor chaperoning a group of students.
Especially interesting are Sweeney remarks on the unreality of the tourist experience. Every visitor is constantly escorted, and their every experience is stage managed. The museums (all, of course, about the Kims) are full of giant Kim statues - Kims Il Sung and Jong Il, that is - but empty of visitors. There are no people with any disabilities. The crowds at the lackluster circus clap in eerie unison. Anyone who dies in a "traffic accident" can be assumed assassinated, since there are barely any vehicles on the road. The only places with reliable electricity are the massive mausoleum with the preserved Kim corpses and the electric fence barring the way to South Korea.
Sweeney offers plenty of further reading on the gulag, though warns the books can be very difficult
to read, and gives a thorough history of the nationwide enslavement Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have created and upheld through isolation brainwashing. It's just as creepy and horrible as you'd expect, if not more so. I was shocked to learn that institutions like the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation rely on information provided by the North Korean government to make decisions about relief and healthcare measures. That anyone takes anything on faith from this unhinged despot just floors me - but what else can they go by? What will we see as satellite imagery brings us closer and closer to seeing the world?
The book is simultaneously surreal and chilling, and though it's a few years out of date, the only thing that's changed is the temperature of the rhetoric. Sweeney's take on the possibility of nuclear war? Unlikely. He predicts that Kim Jong Un will continue his brinkmanship without end, primarily to put on a show for fellow North Koreans. But he must know, says Sweeney, that an attack will prompt a counterattack, and he is hopelessly outgunned in any actual conflict. Kim Jong Un will talk, but doesn't want to take a chance on actually losing the power he's grown accustomed to. We must hope he's an evil genius and not a true madman.
If Sweeney's right, we can only hope that the US won't allow itself to be provoked by words. Hardly a comforting thought!
September 27, 2015
(Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads' Giveaway program. However, the views expressed are my own and do not reflect that of the author, the publisher, or Goodreads).
In 2002, Pres. George W. Bush famously called North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, a member of the "Axis of Evil." While this was a rhetorical ploy used to give him cover to invade Iraq a year later, as this book shows, Pres. Bush was not wrong about the North Korean regime being evil. Part exposé, part travelogue, Mr. Sweeney talks about his time undercover as a "history professor" from the London School of Economics with students from there (controversial move that Mr. Sweeney acknowledges in the preface, introduction, and opening chapter) touring the country. At the same time, he tells about how the Kims rose to power, how they've engaged in countless human rights violations and oppressed the North Korean people for decades. He compares the Kims to racketeers and the Church of Scientology and it is easy to see why. They truly are evil, cult-like gangsters. One aspect of this book that might be off-putting to some readers is Mr. Sweeney's attempts to inject some light humor into the proceedings. However, I found this to be appropriate not because it was funny, but because it wasn't funny and that helps to accentuate just how evil the North Korean regime is. There is nothing funny about what is going on in North Korea and Mr. Sweeney's attempts at humor point this out. Another interesting thing is how Mr. Sweeney always assumes the worst about the North Korean regime and the Kims. Yet he is able to back most of this up with his own research and personal interviews with defectors and others who have experienced the brutality of the North Korean regime. And those claims he isn't able to fully back up he presents enough circumstantial evidence to back those up. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who knows nothing about the North Korean regime and the evil that emanates from it.
In 2002, Pres. George W. Bush famously called North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, a member of the "Axis of Evil." While this was a rhetorical ploy used to give him cover to invade Iraq a year later, as this book shows, Pres. Bush was not wrong about the North Korean regime being evil. Part exposé, part travelogue, Mr. Sweeney talks about his time undercover as a "history professor" from the London School of Economics with students from there (controversial move that Mr. Sweeney acknowledges in the preface, introduction, and opening chapter) touring the country. At the same time, he tells about how the Kims rose to power, how they've engaged in countless human rights violations and oppressed the North Korean people for decades. He compares the Kims to racketeers and the Church of Scientology and it is easy to see why. They truly are evil, cult-like gangsters. One aspect of this book that might be off-putting to some readers is Mr. Sweeney's attempts to inject some light humor into the proceedings. However, I found this to be appropriate not because it was funny, but because it wasn't funny and that helps to accentuate just how evil the North Korean regime is. There is nothing funny about what is going on in North Korea and Mr. Sweeney's attempts at humor point this out. Another interesting thing is how Mr. Sweeney always assumes the worst about the North Korean regime and the Kims. Yet he is able to back most of this up with his own research and personal interviews with defectors and others who have experienced the brutality of the North Korean regime. And those claims he isn't able to fully back up he presents enough circumstantial evidence to back those up. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who knows nothing about the North Korean regime and the evil that emanates from it.
May 23, 2016
While most of the reviews of this book have skewered it for using other sources (great books like The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag or Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea), I think those reviewers have missed the point.
This book is a travelogue, sure, but also includes a lot of history about North Korea and the Kim family, all packaged in a very pop-culture, palatable presentation. The audience for this book is not wannabe North Korean scholars. It isn't people who have or will read those books. It is an ordinary American who perhaps saw the BBC program the author participated in, or who is browsing the bookstore and has a little bit of curiosity about the hermit kingdom.
In other words, this is the Spark Notes of North Korean books - a Wikipedia article as it were. Mixed in with history and information about the oppression of the people and the absurdity of the regime is the eyewitness account of the author's travel in North Korea. The repetition of the truth that North Korea is simply a facade, a strange, Truman Show-like state only serves to emphasize what it would feel like to be there. It isn't poor writing, it's actually good writing. As you get sick of hearing how empty and fake everything is, it should serve to remind you that this is how the people of North Korea live.
If Sweeney were writing an exhaustive history of North Korea, he would fail. With "a popular introduction to North Korea" as his aim, however, he succeeds. I would recommend this book to anyone who perhaps hears a little bit more about North Korea and the atrocities there, but isn't ready to dive into the more scholarly canon.
This book is a travelogue, sure, but also includes a lot of history about North Korea and the Kim family, all packaged in a very pop-culture, palatable presentation. The audience for this book is not wannabe North Korean scholars. It isn't people who have or will read those books. It is an ordinary American who perhaps saw the BBC program the author participated in, or who is browsing the bookstore and has a little bit of curiosity about the hermit kingdom.
In other words, this is the Spark Notes of North Korean books - a Wikipedia article as it were. Mixed in with history and information about the oppression of the people and the absurdity of the regime is the eyewitness account of the author's travel in North Korea. The repetition of the truth that North Korea is simply a facade, a strange, Truman Show-like state only serves to emphasize what it would feel like to be there. It isn't poor writing, it's actually good writing. As you get sick of hearing how empty and fake everything is, it should serve to remind you that this is how the people of North Korea live.
If Sweeney were writing an exhaustive history of North Korea, he would fail. With "a popular introduction to North Korea" as his aim, however, he succeeds. I would recommend this book to anyone who perhaps hears a little bit more about North Korea and the atrocities there, but isn't ready to dive into the more scholarly canon.
November 1, 2015
Could have been half as long. This is a glorified travelogue chronicling the author's eight-day trip to the DPRK with a group of students from the London School of Economics. There's not much juicy insider stuff here, as the group of foreigners sees only what the regime-provided minders want them to see. The history included is better read elsewhere, as it's not told in a linear manner and only served to confuse me, as it was hard to recall whether it was the Great Leader or the Dear Leader who was being discussed. And speaking of the Leaders, there's not very much about the current dude at all. I don't know why that is. Maybe the publisher's deadline hit before the author could finish his research.
There are better books out there. I'd pick one of those rather than read this one, which borders on a mess. "Nothing to Envy" by Barbara Demick springs to mind.
There are better books out there. I'd pick one of those rather than read this one, which borders on a mess. "Nothing to Envy" by Barbara Demick springs to mind.
February 14, 2015
Undercover mission of John Sweeney failed big time. This book could have been so much more, while I have had a constant feeling that the author was not perceptive nor interested enough to grasp what he could from his visit to North Korea. You would expect some details, some descriptions, stories, images... instead what you get is John's biased humor and not-so-funny jokes.
You can easily book a trip to North Korea yourself as well and I guarantee that you would have more to say afterwards than John gives us in the book.
If you have never read anything about NK - go ahead. If you are truly interested in this country skip the book, as it doesn't add do what we already know or even spoils our image a bit.
You can easily book a trip to North Korea yourself as well and I guarantee that you would have more to say afterwards than John gives us in the book.
If you have never read anything about NK - go ahead. If you are truly interested in this country skip the book, as it doesn't add do what we already know or even spoils our image a bit.
July 29, 2017
John Sweeney provides an excellent review of the history and ongoing tragedy of the totalitarian regime north of the DMZ and the bizarre/evil Kim Dynasty. Using accounts of defectors, significant research, and his own "undercover" trip to North Korea under the guise of a visiting LSE professor, Sweeney provides an astounding level of detail and his own personal reflections on the evils of the regime. He offers a policy prescription of attempting to open the closed society to news of the outside world (through radio/internet, etc.) in order to bring about internal regime collapse. All in all, this was a great book for achieving a holistic view of the otherwise opaque and closed North Korean nation.
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