Kongdan Oh's Books

The Hidden People of North Korea

Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom

By: Ralph Hassig,Kongdan Oh

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The Hidden People of North Korea

Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom

By: Ralph Hassig,Kongdan Oh

This unique book, now fully updated, provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of life in North Korea today. Drawing on decades of experience, noted experts Ralph Hassig and Kongdan Oh explore a world few outsiders can imagine. In vivid detail, the authors describe how the secretive and authoritarian government of Kim Jong-un shapes every aspect of its citizens' lives, how the command socialist economy has utterly failed, and how ordinary individuals struggle to survive through small-scale capitalism. Weighing the very limited individual rights allowed, the authors illustrate how the political class system and the legal system serve solely as tools of the regime. The key to understanding how the North Korean people live, the authors argue, is to realize that their only allowed role is to support Kim Jong-un, whose grandfather founded the country in the late 1940s. Still a cypher, Kim Jong-un, as did his father before him, controls his people by keeping them isolated and banning most foreigners. North Koreans remain hungry and oppressed, yet the outside world is slowly filtering in, and the book concludes by urging the United States to flood North Korea with information so that its people can make decisions based on truth rather than their dictator's ubiquitous propaganda.

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Page Count

253

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442237198

ISBN 13

9781442237193

North Korea through the Looking Glass

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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North Korea through the Looking Glass

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

Fifty-five years after its founding at the dawn of the cold war, North Korea remains a land of illusions. Isolated and anachronistic, the country and its culture seem to be dominated exclusively by the official ideology of Juche, which emphasizes national self-reliance, independence, and worship of the supreme leader, General Kim Jong Il. Yet this socialist utopian ideal is pursued with the calculations of international power politics. Kim has transformed North Korea into a militarized state, whose nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and continued threat to South Korea have raised alarm worldwide. This paradoxical combination of cultural isolation and military-first policy has left the North Korean people woefully deprived of the opportunity to advance socially and politically. The socialist economy, guided by political principles and bereft of international support, has collapsed. Thousands, perhaps millions, have died of starvation. Foreign trade has declined and the country's gross domestic product has recorded negative growth every year for a decade. Yet rather than initiate the sort of market reforms that were implemented by other communist governments, North Korean leaders have reverted to the economic policies of the 1950s: mass mobilization, concentration on heavy industry, and increased ideological indoctrination. Although members of the political elite in Pyongyang are acutely aware of their nation's domestic and foreign problems, they are plagued by fear and policy paralysis. North Korea Through the Looking Glass sheds new light on this remote and peculiar country. Drawing on more than ten years of research—including interviews with two dozen North Koreans who made the painful decision to defect from their homeland—Kongdan Oh and Ralph C. Hassig explore what the leadership and the masses believe about their current predicament. Through dual themes of persistence and illusion, they explore North Korea's stubborn adherence to policies that have

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Page Count

290

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0815798202

ISBN 13

9780815798200

Korea Briefing

1997-1999: Challenges and Changes at the Turn of the Century

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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Korea Briefing

1997-1999: Challenges and Changes at the Turn of the Century

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

While mainly focusing on the Kim Dae Jung era, the essays in this book examine persistent problems and new opportunities in Korean politics, economy, and culture. In 1997, Kim Ae Jung was elected to head the government of the Seventh Republic, after 30 years in opposition.

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Page Count

187

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315291916

ISBN 13

9781315291918

North Korea in a Nutshell

A Contemporary Overview

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph Hassig

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North Korea in a Nutshell

A Contemporary Overview

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph Hassig

Explore North Korea, one of the most secretive countries in the world. This thoughtful book provides a concise introduction to North Korea. Two leading experts, Kongdan Oh and Ralph Hassig, trace the country’s history from its founding in 1948 and describe the many facets of its political, economic, social, and cultural life. The authors illuminate a hidden nation dominated by three generations of the secretive Kim regime, a family dynasty more suited to the Middle Ages than the contemporary era. North Korea has a robust if outmoded military force, including a growing arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, to deter and defend against foreign attacks and to maintain independence and isolation from the rest of the world. The struggling economy, disconnected from the global marketplace, operates under harsh international sanctions. All North Koreans, from the highest party cadres to the youngest children living in prison camps, are essentially servants of the leader. Despite Kim Jong-un’s despotic control, the authors argue that North Korea cannot continue on its current path indefinitely. Kim treats even his closest associates harshly, and the gap is widening between his elite supporters, numbering a million or so, and the other twenty-four million North Koreans. The economic and technological gap between South Korea and North Korea is increasing as well, and younger people are becoming disenchanted as they gradually learn more about the outside world.

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Page Count

279

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1538151391

ISBN 13

9781538151396

North Korea through the Looking Glass

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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North Korea through the Looking Glass

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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Page Count

302

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0815798202

ISBN 13

9780815798200

The Hidden People of North Korea

Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom

By: Ralph Hassig,Kongdan Oh

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The Hidden People of North Korea

Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom

By: Ralph Hassig,Kongdan Oh

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Page Count

253

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442237198

ISBN 13

9781442237193

North Korea in a Nutshell

A Contemporary Overview

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph Hassig

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North Korea in a Nutshell

A Contemporary Overview

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph Hassig

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Page Count

279

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1538151391

ISBN 13

9781538151396

Korea Briefing

Toward Reunification

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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Korea Briefing

Toward Reunification

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

This text examines a period of far-reaching change in the two Koreas. Chapters on recent events, the state of current economic, political and international relations, and the directions of bellwether reforms in language policy and education are at the core of the study.

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Page Count

199

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315284758

ISBN 13

9781315284750

Korea Briefing

2000-2001: First Steps Toward Reconciliation and Reunification

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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Korea Briefing

2000-2001: First Steps Toward Reconciliation and Reunification

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

This new edition of Korea Briefing provides a timely analysis of the evolving relationship between South and North Korea. In June 2000, after years of ignoring the South Korean government, the North Korean leader Kim Jong II finally agreed to a summit meeting with South Korea's President Kim Dae Jung. As a sign of reconciliation, the summit meeting has prompted Korea and its neighbors to rethink the assumptions of the Cold War era. With contributions by a multi-national panel of Koreanexperts, the book discusses a wide range of topics, including South Korean politics and economy; Korea's relations with its neighbors and with the United States; recent changes in North Korea; the fate of North Korean defectors; and lessons in German reunification for the two Koreas. The discussions are supplemented by a glossary, a chronology of events occurring from June 1999 to June 2001, and a bibliography.

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Page Count

261

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315290758

ISBN 13

9781315290751

Korea Briefing

1997-1999: Challenges and Changes at the Turn of the Century

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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Korea Briefing

1997-1999: Challenges and Changes at the Turn of the Century

By: Kongdan Oh,Ralph C. Hassig

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

187

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315291916

ISBN 13

9781315291918

Book's by Kongdan Oh

The Hidden People of North Korea

The Hidden People of North Korea

North Korea through the Looking Glass

North Korea through the Looking Glass

Korea Briefing

Korea Briefing

North Korea in a Nutshell

North Korea in a Nutshell

North Korea through the Looking Glass

North Korea through the Looking Glass

The Hidden People of North Korea

The Hidden People of North Korea

North Korea in a Nutshell

North Korea in a Nutshell

Korea Briefing

Korea Briefing

Korea Briefing

Korea Briefing

Korea Briefing

Korea Briefing

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