Edited by Kim Suk-hi, Terence Roehrig and Bernhard Seliger; McFarland & Co. Inc., Publishers: 264 pp., $35
A massive amount of literature has been produced in past decades to describe doomsday theories for North Korea. But the secretive state continues to defy declining its industrial output, lagging technology and food shortages to refute apocalypse and extend the Stalinist nightmare.
In articles that collectively provide a compact overview on North Korea’s political system, economic health and foreign relations status, the authors argue that the country is unlikely to implode in the near future, considering the role played by the country’s historical and cultural factors and “military first” policy.
They provide an interesting take on the fallacies of the collapse scenarios, employed in particular by Western observers, but why they remain as the dominant opinion, and how this has affected the U.S.’s strategy on North Korea.
The book also attempts to provide broader perspective on North Korea’s relentless pursuit of nuclear-weapons program despite international pressures, and assesses the policy challenges posed by the survival or demise of a nuclear North.
— KIM TONG-HYUNG