Immovable Object: North Korea's 70 Years At War with American Power

by A.B. Abrams

North Korea and the United States have been officially at war for over 70 years, one of the longest lasting and most unbalanced conflicts in world history, in which a small East Asian state has held its own against a Western superpower for over three generations. With the Western world increasingly pivoting its attention towards Northeast Asia, and the region likely to play a more central role in the global economy, North Korea’s importance as a strategically located country, potential economic powerhouse and major opponent of Western regional hegemony will only grow over the coming decades. This work is the first fully comprehensive study of the ongoing war between the two parties, and covers the history of the conflict from the first American clashes with Korea’s nationalist movement in 1945 and imposition of its military rule over southern Korea to North Korea’s nuclear deterrence program and ongoing tensions with the U.S. today. The nature of the antagonism between the two states, one profoundly influenced by both decolonisation and wartime memory, and the other uncompromising in its attempts to globally impose its leadership and ideology, is covered in detail.

Northern Korea is one of very few inhabited parts of the world never to have been placed under Western rule, and its fiercely nationalist identity as a deeply Confucian civilisation state has made it considerably more difficult to tackle than almost any other American adversary. This work elucidates the conflicting ideologies and the discordant designs for the Korean nation which have fuelled the war, and explores emerging fields of conflict which have become increasingly central in recent years such as economic and information warfare. Prevailing trends in the conflict and its global implications, including the multiple wars that have been waged by proxy, are also examined in detail. An in-depth assessment of the past provides context key to understanding the future trajectories this relationship could take, and how a continuing shift in global order away from Western unipolarity is likely to influence its future.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Asia

665 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2020

About the author

A.B. Abrams is an expert on the international relations and security of the Asia-Pacific region. He has published widely on defense and politics under various pseudonyms, and is proficient in Chinese, Korean, and other East Asian languages. Abrams has completed Master's degrees in related subjects at the University of London. His works have received strong endorsements from senior military officials, diplomats, professors, and UN experts, among others.

Reviews

[Abel Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is willing to challenge their beliefs on North Korea, and East Asia in general, (and maybe even admire them) with well written and well documented facts.

This will give you a base of where Asian hate began and how it’s maintained. It’s not a surprise it’s been trickling down into American soil over the years.

However well written this is, it still is a difficult (but necessary) read. The parts of the Korean War itself and the gruesome war crimes perpetrated by the US lead coalition right at the beginning is especially hard. I’ve gathered hundreds of quotes and resources to further explore this subject.

Most importantly, It tells a truth the West tries to erase and it’s no wonder there are no reviews here. It’s a hard reality to face and harder yet to push back based on the carefully listed sources (more than 100 per chapter).

Give it a go.

[Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

The significance of this work in today’s political landscape is clear. Abrams presents a detailed account of the conflict between the US empire and the DPRK through a perspective outside of that which bourgeois historians and western lies have popularized. It was quite difficult to get through some of the material due to the sheer brutality of American war crimes during the Korean war, and later crimes which were carried out by the government in the south yet American sponsored. This is required reading for any anti-imperialist living in the core and looking to educate themselves on the history of the DPRK. I would often set this book aside and quickly review a source that was cited on an event I wanted to know more of, and have compiled a list of further reading for myself from that alone. The Korean War has not officially ended, and the Korean peninsula has been kept in a permanent state of militarization via continuous American occupation and dominance over the people's self-determination.

In addition, there are three specific incidents described in the appendices of great importance, namely, the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, the death of the American student Otto Warmbier, & the attack on the DPRK’s embassy in Madrid. If nothing else, these sections alone are worth reading as they’re excellent demonstrations of how we as Americans need to navigate through information presented to us.

[Chet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't repeat all the glowing praise this book has deservedly gotten on this website; I do need to emphasize: if you're going to read just one book on North Korea, make it this one.

I didn't want to give a full five stars however because of Abrams's somewhat simplistic coverage of the relationship between Marxism and "the national question" toward the end of the text. He claims that North Korea is more resilient to Westernization than other Marxist states because (in contrast to China and the USSR) it is nationalist first and Marxist second (meanwhile claims Abrams China and the USSR are/were Marxist first and nationalist second). A few problems with this: 1. Who argues China is "less resilient" to Westernization? Their current president Xi is correct when he proudly proclaims China has demonstrated the potential for states to modernize without being Westernized. 2. The statesman Abrams chooses as an exemplar of the Nationalist-first-Marxist-second approach is in fact the communist diplomat and Mao-right-hand-man Zhou Enlai! He can't have it both ways. 3. The literature is vast and can't be condensed but Chinese communists from Li Dazhao and Mao onward all the way to Xi and younger would take great offense at the description of their party as "Marxist first nationalist second." For Marxist-Leninists, Marxism is the most advanced form of patriotism there is. It isn't an either/or as Abrams so starkly presents it.

Despite all the space I spent above on the critique, it is a small small caveat for what is undoubtedly the best English-language text on the DPRK written for a general readership. Go in completely cold with no knowledge of the peninsula and you will still learn a ton and not be lost for a second. Abrams is an excellent writer and this reads like the snappiest NYT bestselling nonfic available, an absolute page-turner. Of course, don't expect the NYT to endorse this type of journalism anytime soon!

[Ian]

If you have even a passing interest in this subject matter, don’t let the page count deter you - this is a powerful read from beginning to end. Abrams details the US’ genocide and subsequent crimes against the Korean people and chronicles North Korea’s valiant efforts at resisting Western imperialism.

This framing might seem backwards for many readers. Even if one grants that the US committed grave crimes against North Korea, don’t the latter’s alleged human rights violations justify its government’s toppling? Ignoring the double-standard at play - the US’ repeated human rights violations against both its own citizens and those abroad is never used by liberals, conservatives, or even democratic socialists to justify toppling the US government - one of many topics Abrams explores is the unreliability of North Korean defector testimonies, upon which the vast majority of claims of North Korean human rights violations are based, both within the US foreign policy establishment and at major human rights organizations. This isn’t just discussed by Abrams, but is acknowledged even in mainstream Western press (e.g., “Why do North Korean defector testimonies so often fall apart?” in The Guardian). This excerpt from the book discusses this phenomenon.