North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula - A Modern History

by Paul French

This reissue of Paul French's acclaimed introduction to North Korea provides an up-to-the-minute overview of the politics, economics and history of the DPRK, with added chapters dealing with recent events. A new foreword examines why North Korea remains an issue in world politics and argues that an understanding of the country is more important now than ever. A new in-depth postscript offers analysis of recent years, why Pyongyang felt compelled to test a bomb and revert to blatant nuclear diplomacy, and how the crisis can be resolved peacefully.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

About the author

Paul French has been based in Shanghai for many years as Chief China Representative of research and analysis consultancy Access Asia. He is a regular commentator of China and North East Asia on the international media. He is the author of a number of previous books including the well-received North Korea: The Paranoid Pensinsula for Zed Books.

Reviews

[Andrew Daniels · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sloppy mix of impressions, anecdotes, and bits gleaned from the press
not a good book or good source for DPRK

Alot of the book seems to be along the lines of, heres what it might have been like at some time, supposedly this thing was trending, or such and such cost so much. Kinda dubious, not really history.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough analysis of the history of North Korea and enjoyable read. This book does get bogged down in details towards the middle (especially when covering the North's economy). The author does seem to go back and forth as to whether he blames the US for the North's current nuclearization efforts. Towards the end of the book, he does mention Russian and Chinese actions as a possible motivation for Kim's nuclear program (which is more realistic than placing the blame entirely on Bush for backing out of the 1994 Framework Agreement).

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is pretty good. i think it's good for anyone with any level of knowledge of recent north korean issues. for someone who wants to learn, it's an entertaining resource. for someone who studies east asian politics, it's shows some of the more hilarious sides of kim jong-il and north korea.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

scary shit. (this perhaps goes without saying -- but unlike many commentators Paul French goes way beyond the nuclear crisis issue, exploring agricultural policy, succession politics, ideology, black markets, and many, many other morbidly fascinating details of the horror that is life in DPRK)

[chloe xu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm very much interested in learning new things about a place I know very little about. This book taught me a hell of a lot