North Korea: Another Country (2003)

by Bruce Cumings

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Awesome. Debunks the standard propaganda about Korea.To understand where and why Korea is where it is now is to look back to "the holocaust that the North experienced during the Korean War [1959-53:].” & holocaust is not an exaggerated term...for instance the number of napalm bombs dropped there outnumbered the Vietnam war. It cannot be understood apart from a terrible fratricidal war that has never ended, the guerrilla struggle against Japanese imperialism in the 1930s, its initial emergence as a state in 1945, its fraught relationship with the South, its brittle and defensive reaction to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and its interminable daily struggle with the United States of America.” (

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velvetink | Mar 31, 2013 |

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Noord-Korea

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Judging from our media, North Korea is the country every American loves to hate--beginning with President George W. Bush, who made it a charter member of his "axis of evil" and hoped to "topple" it.

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Sex is not the main point of Korean marriages, so you get lots of male philandering and lots of horny housewives. (Friends of mine in the Peace Corps found that living with Korean families offered an unexpected treat: sleeping with the mother of the house.)

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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Wikipedia in English (3)

History of North Korea

North Korea

Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Humanities/February 2006

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 156584940X, Paperback)

America's leading historian on Korea offers a nuanced analysis that demolishes familiar generalizations.

Depicted as an insular and forbidding police state with an "insane" dictator at its helm, North Korea —charter member of Bush's "Axis of Evil" —is a country the U.S. loves to hate. Now the CIA says it possesses nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, as well as long-range missiles capable of delivering them to America's West Coast.

But, as Bruce Cumings demonstrates in this provocative, lively read, the story of the U.S.-Korea conflict is more complex than our leaders or our news media would have us believe. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Korea, and on declassified government reports, Cumings traces that story, from the brutal Korean War to the present crisis. Harboring no illusions regarding the totalitarian Kim Jong Il regime, Cumings nonetheless insists on a more nuanced approach. The result is both a counter-narrative to the official U.S. and North Korean versions and a fascinating portrayal of North Korea, a country that suffers through foreign invasions, natural disasters, and its own internal contradictions, yet somehow continues to survive.

(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 09 Jan 2013 08:31:00 -0500)

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"Judging from media reports, North Korea is the country Americans love to hate. A charter member of Bush's "Axis of Evil" whose leader, Kim Jong Il, is routinely described as "insane" and "diabolical" and a self-proclaimed alternative to neo-liberalism and globalization, North Korea is anathema to conservative and liberal Americans alike. And now the CIA says it possesses one or two nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and long-range missiles capable of delivering atomic bombs or smallpox to America's West Coast."."Suffering no misconceptions regarding North Korea's dubious political tradition - from human-rights violations to token democracy - Bruce Cumings insists on a more nuanced understanding of U.S.-North Korean relations. From CIA reports on North Korea's impressive social programs to that country's genuine efforts to address the new strategic environment since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cumings draws from his extensive knowledge of Korean history and declassified government reports to show that North Korea is as fascinating as it is repellent, as formidable as it is unique and idiosyncratic."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)