Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan

by Bertil Lintner

Great Leader, Dear Leader is an absorbing expose of North Korea under the Kim clan―Great Leader Kim Il Sung and his son, Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. It traces the origin of the regime's ideology and investigates its attempts to fill the empty state coffers through missile technology sales and other unorthodox schemes. It examines the regime's relations with South Korea, the countrywide famine and the juche ideal, the "military first" policy, and the nuclear weapons program.

Bertil Lintner, one of the very few Western journalists to visit North Korea in 2004, aims to demystify rather than demonize the least known of the "axis of evil" countries by interviewing Koreans from both sides of the divided peninsula as well as ethnic Koreans in Japan and leading Korea experts outside the country.

Genres: History

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Feraya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The murky, manipulating and dark nature of North Korean dictators. Sad and depressing.

[Robert Dowdle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being 20 years old, this book is still a good summary of NK's current political system and background. One of the most important things it does is raise the importance of refugee and defector stories. While these stories are important for understanding NK, it is always important to maintain some level of skepticism as there have been stories that are motivated much more by political and financial ambitions than reflecting reality. The choice to separate the chapters by theme rather than chronology was also one I think the Lintner did well.

[Dominic · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why but i found this book to be actually funny....

[Thomas Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well researched with tons of good information, but the writing style is stilted and academic.