The Kim Dynasty Of North Korea

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. Lifting North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take readers inside a society, that to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from birth to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of megalomaniacs. To North Koreans, the Kims are more than just leaders. Kim Il-Sung is the country's leading novelist, philosopher, historian, educator, designer, literary critic, architect, general, farmer, and ping-pong trainer. Radios are made so they can only be tuned to the official state frequency. "Newspapers" are filled with endless columns of Kim speeches and propaganda. And instead of Christmas, North Koreans celebrate Kim's birthday--and he presents each child a present, just like Santa. The regime that the Kim Dynasty has built remains technically at war with the United States nearly a half century after the armistice that halted actual fighting in the Korean War. This fascinating and complete history takes full advantage of a great deal of source material that has only recently become available (some from archives in Moscow and Beijing), and brings the reader up to the tensions of the current day. For as this book will explain, North Korea appears more and more to be the greatest threat among the Axis of Evil countries--with some defector testimony warning that Kim Jong-Il has enough chemical weapons to wipe out the entire population of South Korea.

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading "We are of a single nation, of the same blood, but forcibly divided." - attributed to Kim Il-sung North Korea has long been the butt of jokes, and it has been a longstanding target of international criticism, but the startling satellite image was anything but amusing, for it demonstrated the truly catastrophic conditions North Koreans find themselves in. Statistics show that the average South Korean uses up to 10,162 kilowatt hours of power per year, whereas their neighbors in the north consume only 739. This is only one amongst a slew of stumbling blocks affecting the state, impeding it from proper progress. The mismatching network of sprawling, yet lifeless cities and squalid, poverty-stricken provinces stands eerily silent next to the bustling metropolises on either side of it. North Korea is trapped in an impenetrable, soundproof bubble, the entire state frozen in time. Notwithstanding a fractional sliver of the capital, where the Supreme Commander and the North Korean elites resided, the faded Pyongyang skyline and its blocky, monotone buildings - while a vast improvement from the rest of the state - seemed to be lifted straight out of the '70s at best. So why is North Korea so starkly different from its neighbors when nothing more but mere borders separate them? A tyrannical lineage secured by nepotism. An entire nation indoctrinated by chilling, mindboggling propaganda, molded by fear and forced ignorance. Mass purges doled out seemingly on whims, without fair trials. Unparalleled paranoia and cold-blooded assassinations left and right, seemingly around every curve and corner. An impoverished sphere of barren wastelands inhabited by malnourished masses, orbiting a world glittering with the gross opulence and superfluous riches of the elite. These sound like the elements of a particularly perilous period of autocracy enforced by some mad monarch of a bygone era, or perhaps a generic blurb for a far-fetched thriller set in a dystopian future. Alas, the description matches the modern state of North Korea almost flawlessly. To say that the so-called "Supreme Commanders" of North Korea have been sticklers for submission would trivialize the more-than-troubling state of affairs that has plagued this precarious place for decades. The fearsome Kim regime, though relatively fresh in comparison to powerful dynasties that lasted for centuries, has become one of history's most controversial bloodlines, and not without cause. After his father, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il was the second of the despotic Kims that have terrorized North Korea for decades. While lampooned widely across the West, Kim Jong-il, a fan of cinema, all but mastered the art of propaganda in North Korea to heighten his image. A clip from a quirky North Korean children's show that has recently emerged went so far as to depict his supernatural birth in question. A bespectacled man sporting a Mister Rogers-esque mustard sweater and a wispy, peppered beard can be seen surrounded by a group of kindergarteners who appear to be captivated by the eccentric narrator's every word. He tells them about the "Great General from Heaven," who was born on what the locals call the "sacred Mount Paektu," the tallest cluster of mountain ranges on the entire Korean peninsula with its staggering height of 9,000 ft. After his father's death in 2011, Kim Jong-un, the baby-faced 30-something with the bizarre flat-top seated at the throne today, became an object of fascination. The world watched with bated breath as the keys to the sinking ship were passed down to the young Kim, hoping for the state's long-awaited metamorphosis. It would not take long for these same wishful thinkers to realize that this young man could be far more erratic, blinkered, and inflexible than those who came before him.

Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from infancy to follow fanatically the despots Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader lifts North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation to offer in-depth portraits of its Orwellian leaders, taking readers inside a society that might seem to be from another planet. This book is already being hailed as an Asian studies classic, rigorously researched and spellbinding in its storytelling. The chief U.S. envoy was photographed carrying his personal copy as he prepared to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Now revised and expanded for the paperback, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader for many years to come will define a Spartan, stubbornly enigmatic society. Book jacket.

The 2018 summit meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un brought renewed international attention to North Korea and its leading dynasty. Ruled by three successive generations of the Kim family, North Korea is one of the most authoritarian states in the world. This collection of articles covers the history of their dynasty, including Kim Il-sung's assumption of power in the wake of World War II, the intense cult of personality surrounding him that followed, and the twice-over handoff of power from father to son, first to Kim Jong-il and later to Kim Jong-un. This in-depth coverage presents a tale of human rights abuses, famine, and nuclearization at the hands of three eccentric, unpredictable, and fiercely nationalistic dictators.

North Korea is poised at the crossroads of history. Which direction will its leader take? Throughout the world, oppressive regimes are being uprooted and replaced by budding democracies, but one exception remains: The People's Republic of North Korea. The Kim family has clung to power for three generations by silencing dissidents, ruling with an iron fist, and holding its neighbors hostage with threats of war. Under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, North Korea has come closer than ever to creating a viable nuclear arsenal, but widespread famine and growing resistance are weakening his regime's stability. In The Hermit King, Asian geopolitical expert Chung Min Lee tells the story of the rise of the Kim Dynasty and its atrocities, motivations, and diplomatic goals. He also discusses the possible outcomes of its aggressive standoff with the world superpowers. Kim Jong Un is not a crazed "Rocket Man" or a bumbling despot; he has been groomed since birth to take control of his country and stay in power at all costs. He is now at a fateful crossroads. Will he make good on decades of threats, liberalize North Korea and gain international legitimacy, or watch his regime crumble around him? Lee analyzes the likelihood and consequences of each of these possibilities, cautioning that in the end, a humanitarian crisis in the region is all but unavoidable. The Hermit King is a thoughtful and compelling look at the most complicated diplomatic situation on Earth.

North Korea's opaqueness combined with its military capabilities make the country and its leader dangerous wild cards in the international community. Brookings Senior Fellow Jung H. Pak, who led the U.S. intelligence community's analysis on Korean issues, tells the story of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's upbringing, provides insight on his decision-making, and makes recommendations on how to thwart Kim's ambitions. In her deep analysis of the personality of the North Korean leader, Pak makes clearer the reasoning behind the way he governs and conducts his foreign affairs.

The collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime of North Korea is imminent. The Kim regime will fall in five years due to its own nukes. The Kim dynasty's nuclear development has continued for more than six decades. North Korea is estimated to have over 60 nuclear weapons today. The international community has continued the effort to denuclearize North Korea and to open up the world's most isolated country to the outside world. The Kim dynasty regime believes nuclear weapons to threaten the international community and to create fear among its populace are the only means to ensure his security. But it is sadly mistaken. Kim Jong-un' fake offers to denuclearize North Korea as shown in the US-North Korea summits in 2018 and 2019 will continue as Kim aims to gain economic and other benefits from the United States and its allies. However, the familiar North Korean tricks will no longer work. Washington will keep tightening economic and other sanctions on North Korea. Donald Trump's surprise encounter with Kim Jong-un at the DMZ on June 30, 2019, was nothing but a symbolic gesture with no substance. China, North Korea's lifeline, is showing signs of discarding the Kim Jong-un regime. China is kicking the old, wrong perception that North Korea serves as a buffer against US presence in East Asia. China's bond with North Korea is worsening Beijing's international reputation. Kim Jong-un, mocked as "Kim Fatty the Third" among the Chinese, has become a serious political liability to the Xi Jinping government. China will seek a regime change in North Korea. It prefers to see a Vietnam-type, nuclear-free government in North Korea. A sweeping popular uprising of starving North Koreans has also been simmering. Emerging technologies may take actions to end the Kim dynasty even earlier than the international pressure and Chinese actions against the Kim regime. Technologies to remove global troublemakers are making unremitting progress. For example, invisible, undetectable, tiny AI-based drones loaded with the genetic information about global mischief-makers could be deployed to eliminate them in any place in the next five years. Still, the Kim Jong-un regime can survive if it decides to move in the right direction. International society has advised that North Korea pursue Vietnam-style economic success. The economic prosperity of Vietnam has been possible since Hanoi had no nuclear weapons and could thus be a friend to the United States. Kim Jong-un's move to recast his reclusive country is the only remaining option for his survival. Kim doesn't need to be afraid of the "Big Lies," including the formation of North Korea as a "big Lie" state in 1948 and the Kim dynasty referred to in North Korea as the Mount Paektu Bloodline as a fabrication of history, to be known to his people. All communist countries have their own dirty history on par with North Korea's. For instance, communist China has been called an "Empire of Lies." The falsehood of the Mount Paektu Bloodline matters little to North Koreans. What matters most to them, starving and undernourished, is the bread-and-butter issue. Kim Jong-un should realize that his days are numbered anyway. If Kim ditches his nuclear arsenal, and launches economic reforms to make North Korea a second Vietnam, he will be able to establish himself as a heroic national leader who deserves international acclaim. The Kim Jong-un regime is now at the crossroads between prosperity and collapse. [About the author] Young Sop Ahn, the author of "Ten Megatrends Changing Our Lives," is a global thinker. Ahn was a visiting scholar at MIT and a graduate student associate at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs before he joined the faculty of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy of the ROK government. Educated at MIT, Harvard, and Seoul National University (SNU), Ahn holds two PhDs in international political economy and information science from MIT and SNU, respectively. Email: [email protected]

In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive