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kim il sung books: Kim Il Sung Dae-Sook Suh, 1988 Examines the rule of the Korean dictator who was premier, and then president, of North Korea until his death. |
kim il sung books: Kim Il-song's North Korea Helen-Louise Hunter, 1999-04-30 Hunter provides a glimpse inside North Korean society, detailing the everyday life of people living in perhaps the most isolated, secretive society of the 20th century. In this declassified CIA study, she describes the world's most extreme cult society under the charismatic totalitarian leader, Kim Il-song, who ruled his people for 45 years—longer than any other leader of the 20th century. Kim Il-song's totalitarian cult society comes closest to George Orwell's 1984 than any society yet contrived. Hunter brings to life what it is like to live in a thoroughly thought-controlled society—which also is the world's most class-conscious society. Based on all the sources available to the CIA at the time, this book is the most comprehensive look at North Korean life ever published. It is essential reading for foreign policy officials, Asian Studies scholars, and the general public interested in world affairs. |
kim il sung books: Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader Bradley K. Martin, 2004-10-15 Citing new material from archives in Moscow and Beijing, the first definitiveaccount of North Korea and the Kim Dynasty is offered by a top journalist andKorean expert. 16-page photo insert. |
kim il sung books: The Selected Works of Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung, 2011-11-19 Kim Il-sung (1912 - 1994) was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) from its founding in 1948 until his death. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death. He was also the Chairman and General Secretary of the ruling Workers Party of Korea. |
kim il sung books: With the Century Il-sŏng Kim, 1993 |
kim il sung books: For the Independent, Peaceful Reunification of Korea Il-sŏng Kim, 1975 This selection of articles, speeches and interviews by Kim II Sung, is of more than historic interest. Covering the period from 1948 through 1974, these writings on the question of reunification demonstrate the consistently democratic and peaceful proposals that Kim has put forward to solve this most pressing problem. |
kim il sung books: Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea Jae-Cheon Lim, 2008-11-24 Kim Jong Il came to power after the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994. Contrary to expectations, he has succeeded in maintaining enough political stability to remain in power. Kim Jong Il's Leadership of North Korea is an examination of how political power has been developed, transmitted from father to son, and now operates in North Korea Using a variety of original North Korean sources as well as South Korean materials Jae-Cheon Lim pieces together the ostensibly contradictory and inconsistent facts into a conceptual coherent framework. This book considers Kim and his leadership through an analytical framework. composed of four main elements: i) Kim as a leader of a totalitarian society; ii) as a politician; iii) as a Korean; and iv) as an individual person. This illuminating account of what constitutes power and how it is used makes an important contribution to the understanding of an opaque and difficult regime. It will be of interest for upper level undergraduate, postgraduates and academics interested in North Korean politics, and also those in Political theory. |
kim il sung books: A Kim Jong-Il Production Paul Fischer, 2015-02-03 Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios. Conceiving every movie made, he acted as producer and screenwriter. Despite this control, he was underwhelmed by the available talent and took drastic steps, ordering the kidnapping of Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi)—South Korea's most famous actress—and her ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, the country's most famous filmmaker.Madam Choi vanished first. When Shin went to Hong Kong to investigate, he was attacked and woke up wrapped in plastic sheeting aboard a ship bound for North Korea. Madam Choi lived in isolated luxury, allowed only to attend the Dear Leader's dinner parties. Shin, meanwhile, tried to escape, was sent to prison camp, and re-educated. After four years he cracked, pledging loyalty. Reunited with Choi at the first party he attends, it is announced that the couple will remarry and act as the Dear Leader's film advisors. Together they made seven films, in the process gaining Kim Jong-Il's trust. While pretending to research a film in Vienna, they flee to the U.S. embassy and are swept to safety.A nonfiction thriller packed with tension, passion, and politics, author Paul Fischer's A Kim Jong-Il Production offers a rare glimpse into a secretive world, illuminating a fascinating chapter of North Korea's history that helps explain how it became the hermetically sealed, intensely stage-managed country it remains today. |
kim il sung books: The Interpreter Suki Kim, 2004-01-01 A striking first novel about the dark side of the American Dream Suzy Park is a twenty-nine-year-old Korean American interpreter for the New York City court system. Young, attractive, and achingly alone, she makes a startling and ominous discovery during one court case that forever alters her family's history. Five years prior, her parents--hardworking greengrocers who forfeited personal happiness for their children's gain--were brutally murdered in an apparent robbery of their fruit and vegetable stand. Or so Suzy believed. But the glint of a new lead entices Suzy into the dangerous Korean underworld, and ultimately reveals the mystery of her parents' homicide. An auspicious debut about the myth of the model Asian citizen, The Interpreter traverses the distance between old worlds and new, poverty and privilege, language and understanding. |
kim il sung books: The Cleanest Race B.R. Myers, 2011-02-01 Understanding North Korea through its propaganda What do the North Koreans really believe? How do they see themselves and the world around them? Here B.R. Myers, a North Korea analyst and a contributing editor of The Atlantic, presents the first full-length study of the North Korean worldview. Drawing on extensive research into the regime’s domestic propaganda, including films, romance novels and other artifacts of the personality cult, Myers analyzes each of the country’s official myths in turn—from the notion of Koreans’ unique moral purity, to the myth of an America quaking in terror of “the Iron General.” In a concise but groundbreaking historical section, Myers also traces the origins of this official culture back to the Japanese fascist thought in which North Korea’s first ideologues were schooled. What emerges is a regime completely unlike the West’s perception of it. This is neither a bastion of Stalinism nor a Confucian patriarchy, but a paranoid nationalist, “military-first” state on the far right of the ideological spectrum. Since popular support for the North Korean regime now derives almost exclusively from pride in North Korean military might, Pyongyang can neither be cajoled nor bullied into giving up its nuclear program. The implications for US foreign policy—which has hitherto treated North Korea as the last outpost of the Cold War—are as obvious as they are troubling. With North Korea now calling for a “blood reckoning” with the “Yankee jackals,” Myers’s unprecedented analysis could not be more timely. |
kim il sung books: Language and Truth in North Korea Sonia Ryang, 2021-05-31 In this innovative and persuasive volume, Sonia Ryang offers new ways to think about North Korea and how truth emerges over decades from within a dominant discourse. It explores four discrete yet mutually related domains of discourse: North Korea’s literary purge of the 1950s–1960s; its state-initiated linguistic reforms of the 1960s–1980s; stories from a people’s chronicle, more than one hundred volumes in length, documenting interactions with the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung; and the multivolume memoirs of the Great Leader himself, published in the 1990s. These texts are heterogeneous in terms of authorship, style, purpose, and genre, and many have never before been explored in Anglophone studies of North Korea. All have contributed to consolidating a North Korean regime of truth, bringing into existence a set of assumptions and shared understandings that have been regarded as true over the last half century. Basing her work on a study of these linguistic and discursive domains, Ryang explores the ways in which power, truth, and self are indissolubly connected by function as well as efficacy and how language plays a key role in sustaining their validity. The Kim Il Sung era, from 1945 to Kim’s death in 1994, forms the basis of the book, but the way truth emerged and was sustained during these decades provide important insight into how we can comprehend North Korea today. Rather than view the country as an ideological entity in order to expose its falsehood, so to speak, thinking critically about what it sees as true yields a far more productive outcome for scholarly analysis as well as general understanding. Language and Truth in North Korea will find a ready audience among those interested in North Korea from a wide variety of disciplines, including the social sciences, history, philosophy, and theology. |
kim il sung books: Becoming Kim Jong Un Jung H. Pak, 2021-04-06 A groundbreaking account of the rise of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un—from his nuclear ambitions to his summits with President Donald J. Trump—by a leading American expert “Shrewdly sheds light on the world’s most recognizable mysterious leader, his life and what’s really going on behind the curtain.”—Newsweek When Kim Jong Un became the leader of North Korea following his father's death in 2011, predictions about his imminent fall were rife. North Korea was isolated, poor, unable to feed its people, and clinging to its nuclear program for legitimacy. Surely this twentysomething with a bizarre haircut and no leadership experience would soon be usurped by his elders. Instead, the opposite happened. Now in his midthirties, Kim Jong Un has solidified his grip on his country and brought the United States and the region to the brink of war. Still, we know so little about him—or how he rules. Enter former CIA analyst Jung Pak, whose brilliant Brookings Institution essay “The Education of Kim Jong Un” cemented her status as the go-to authority on the calculating young leader. From the beginning of Kim’s reign, Pak has been at the forefront of shaping U.S. policy on North Korea and providing strategic assessments for leadership at the highest levels in the government. Now, in this masterly book, she traces and explains Kim’s ascent on the world stage, from his brutal power-consolidating purges to his abrupt pivot toward diplomatic engagement that led to his historic—and still poorly understood—summits with President Trump. She also sheds light on how a top intelligence analyst assesses thorny national security problems: avoiding biases, questioning assumptions, and identifying risks as well as opportunities. In piecing together Kim’s wholly unique life, Pak argues that his personality, perceptions, and preferences are underestimated by Washington policy wonks, who assume he sees the world as they do. As the North Korean nuclear threat grows, Becoming Kim Jong Un gives readers the first authoritative, behind-the-scenes look at Kim’s character and motivations, creating an insightful biography of the enigmatic man who could rule the hermit kingdom for decades—and has already left an indelible imprint on world history. |
kim il sung books: The Great Successor Anna Fifield, 2019-06-11 The behind-the-scenes story of the rise and reign of the world's strangest and most elusive tyrant, Kim Jong Un, by the journalist with the best connections and insights into the bizarrely dangerous world of North Korea. Since his birth in 1984, Kim Jong Un has been swaddled in myth and propaganda, from the plainly silly -- he could supposedly drive a car at the age of three -- to the grimly bloody stories of family members who perished at his command. Anna Fifield reconstructs Kim's past and present with exclusive access to sources near him and brings her unique understanding to explain the dynastic mission of the Kim family in North Korea. The archaic notion of despotic family rule matches the almost medieval hardship the country has suffered under the Kims. Few people thought that a young, untested, unhealthy, Swiss-educated basketball fanatic could hold together a country that should have fallen apart years ago. But Kim Jong Un has not just survived, he has thrived, abetted by the approval of Donald Trump and diplomacy's weirdest bromance. Skeptical yet insightful, Fifield creates a captivating portrait of the oddest and most secretive political regime in the world -- one that is isolated yet internationally relevant, bankrupt yet in possession of nuclear weapons -- and its ruler, the self-proclaimed Beloved and Respected Leader, Kim Jong Un. |
kim il sung books: Kim Jong Il's North Korea Alison Behnke, 2007-09-01 Describes Kim Jong Il's rise to power in North Korea and how his strict policies have contributed to devastating famine, the slaughter of many North Koreans, and the isolation of North Korea from the world. |
kim il sung books: Essential Juche Works Kim Jong Il, 2020-04 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is guided in its activities by the Juche idea authored by President Kim Il Sung. The Juche idea means, in a nutshell, that the masters of the revolution and construction are the masses of the people and that they are also the motive force of the revolution and construction.The Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. It is the man-centered world outlook and also a political philosophy to materialize the independence of the popular masses, namely, a philosophy which elucidates the theoretical basis of politics that leads the development of society along the right path.The Government of the DPRK steadfastly maintains Juche in all realms of the revolution and construction.Establishing Juche means adopting the attitude of a master towards the revolution and construction of one's country. It means maintaining an independent and creative standpoint in finding solutions to the problems which arise in the revolution and construction. It implies solving those problems mainly by one's own efforts and in conformity with the actual conditions of one's own POLITICS country. The realization of independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defense is a principle the Government maintains consistently. |
kim il sung books: A Misunderstood Friendship Zhihua Shen, Yafeng Xia, 2018-09-18 Today, the People’s Republic of China is North Korea’s only ally on the world stage, a tightly knit relationship that goes back decades. Both countries portray their partnership as one of “brotherly affection” based on shared political ideals—an alliance “as tight as lips to teeth”—even though relations have deteriorated in recent years due to China’s ascendance and North Korea’s intransigence. In A Misunderstood Friendship, leading diplomatic historians Zhihua Shen and Yafeng Xia draw on previously untapped primary source materials revealing tensions and rivalries to offer a unique account of the China–North Korea relationship. They unravel the twists and turns in high-level diplomacy between China and North Korea from the late 1940s to the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Through unprecedented access to Chinese government documents, Soviet and Eastern European archives, and in-depth interviews with former Chinese diplomats and North Korean defectors, Shen and Xia reveal that the tensions that currently plague the alliance between the two countries have been present from the very beginning of the relationship. They significantly revise existing narratives of the Korean War, China’s postwar aid to North Korea, Kim Il-sung’s ideological and strategic thinking, North Korea’s relations with the Soviet Union, and the importance of the Sino-U.S. rapprochement, among other issues. A Misunderstood Friendship adds new depth to our understanding of one of the most secretive and significant relationships of the Cold War, with increasing relevance to international affairs today. |
kim il sung books: Kim Jong-Il Michael Breen, 2004-01-29 Kim Jong-il has been the subject of intense interest and fear in recent months. He has been demonised as 'Dr Evil' for his nuclear programme which puts Korea on a collision course with the US. For this reason, the world has a stake in understanding this man and his little-known country. This account aims to tell the compelling story of Kim Jong-il and the country he leads, exploring the pressing question of how he manages to hold onto power in a country that is ravaged by famine and poverty. Unravelling the myths, mysteries, and fallacies that surround this small, desperate country, this fascinating story includes rare photos of Kim Jong-il and his brutal regime. |
kim il sung books: The Real North Korea Andrei Lankov, 2013-05-02 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. |
kim il sung books: Every Falling Star Sungju Lee, Susan Elizabeth McClelland, 2016-09-13 Written for a young audience, this intense memoir explores the harsh realities of life on the streets in contemporary North Korea. Every Falling Star is the memoir of Sungju Lee, who at the age of twelve was forced to live on the streets of North Korea and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, “his brothers,” to daily be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist. |
kim il sung books: Without You, There Is No Us Suki Kim, 2015-10-13 A haunting account of teaching English to the sons of North Korea's ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields—except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has gone undercover as a missionary and a teacher. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them English, all under the watchful eye of the regime. Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleagues—evangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. As the weeks pass, she is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. At the same time, they offer Suki tantalizing glimpses of their private selves—their boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished. She in turn begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their own—at such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. But when Kim Jong-il dies, and the boys she has come to love appear devastated, she wonders whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged. Without You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life in the world's most unknowable country, and at the privileged young men she calls soldiers and slaves. |
kim il sung books: My Holiday in North Korea Wendy E. Simmons, 2016-05-03 “You remember Eat, Pray, Love and Under the Tuscan Sun? Yeah, this really isn’t like those. It’s better” (San Francisco Chronicle). Most people want out of North Korea. Wendy Simmons wanted in. In My Holiday in North Korea: The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth, Wendy shares a glimpse of North Korea as it’s never been seen before. Even though it’s the scariest place on Earth, somehow Wendy forgot to check her sense of humor at the border. But Wendy’s initial amusement and bewilderment soon turned to frustration and growing paranoia. Before long, she learned the essential conundrum of “tourism” in North Korea: Travel is truly a love affair. But, just like love, it’s a two-way street. And North Korea deprives you of all this. They want you to fall in love with the singular vision of the country they’re willing to show you and nothing more. Through poignant, laugh-out-loud essays and ninety-two never-before-published color photographs of North Korea, Wendy chronicles one of the strangest vacations ever. Along the way, she bares all while undergoing an inner journey as convoluted as the country itself. “Much of the humor and poignancy comes from the absurdity of a fun-loving free spirit taking a vacation that’s more rigidly scripted and controlled than a presidential motorcade . . . Simmons’ photos—including an eerie image of a classroom full of schoolgirls playing accordions—further illustrate the bizarre nature of a country that, whether for good or bad, has been carefully controlled for generations.” —San Francisco Chronicle “An irresistible read . . . A rare and fascinating look at the tourist’s North Korea in a work that is humorous, appalling, and very sad. A highly recommended and revealing glimpse into a secretive land.” —Library Journal |
kim il sung books: The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot Blaine Harden, 2016-04-07 A non-fiction thriller by international bestselling author Blaine Harden (Escape from Camp 14) that explores the worlds most repressive state through the intertwined lives of two North Koreans, one infamous, one obscure: Kim Il Sung, the former North Korean leader and No Kum Sok, once the state's youngest jet fighter pilot. Shortly before the Korean War ended, No Kum Sok met Kim Il Sung, who congratulated him for his flying skill and his courage. A few months later, No Kum Sok stole a Soviet-made MiG-15 and flew it to a US airfield in South Korea. Beginning with the arbitrary division of Korea in 1945 and ending two months after the shaky armistice that halted combat in the Korean War, The Great Leader & the Fighter Pilot is an ambitious and gripping book which digs deeply into the character of the Kim family dictatorship. At once an irresistible adventure story and an authoritative guide to the notorious state, it explains why North Korea remains so isolated, why it created and maintains a vast gulag of concentration camps, and why it is still so angry at the western world. |
kim il sung books: The Accusation Bandi, 2017-03-02 'Dear President Trump ... As you are interested in North Korea, you will surely be interested in this book' Margaret Atwood on The Accusation Smuggled out of North Korea and now an international sensation, The Accusation is the work of an anonymous dissident known to us only by the pseudonym 'Bandi'. Bandi's profound, vividly characterised stories tell of life under the totalitarian regimes of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. The Accusation depicts ordinary men and women facing the horrors of life in a police state: a factory supervisor caught between loyalty to an old friend and loyalty to the regime; a woman struggling to feed her husband through the great famine; the staunch Party man whose actor son reveals to him the absurd theatre of their reality; a mother raising her child in a world where the all-pervasive propaganda is the stuff of nightmare. The Accusation is a heartbreaking portrayal of everyday life in North Korea. It is also a reminder that humanity can sustain hope even in the most desperate of circumstances - and that the courage of free thought has a power far beyond those who seek to suppress it. 'A historical first, the only samizdat writing to have come out of North Korea. The Accusation succeeds in the rare feat of conveying something of what it feels like to be a citizen of the cruellest, most repressive country in the world' The Times |
kim il sung books: Origins of North Korea's Juche Chae-jŏng Sŏ, 2013 For over five decades, North Korea has outlived many forecasts of collapse despite defects in its system. Origins of North Korea's Juche: Colonialism, War, and Development, edited by Jae-Jung Suh, argues that it has survived because of Juche, a unique political institution built on the simple notion of self-determination, whose meanings and limits have been shaped by Koreans' experiences with colonialism, war, and development amidst surrounding superpowers that have complicated their aspirations and plans. The authors in this volume collectively provide an historical institutionalist account of North Korean politics organized around the concept of Juche--commonly translated as self-reliance, but best understood as subjecthood or being a master of one's own fate--focusing on its role as a response to North Korea's experiences with colonialism, the Korean War, and economic development. The contributors further discuss how Juche circumscribes the evolutionary path that North Koreans can take as they negotiate contemporary challenges. North Korea, as it is now, is best understood in terms of Juche which embodies the cumulative effect of its historical experiences and responses, and its future potential and trajectory, as enabled and constrained by its conception of Juche. This collection provides fascinating insights into the politics and history of one of the world's most mysterious nations. |
kim il sung books: Juche! The Speeches and Writings of Kim Il Sung Il-sŏng Kim, 1972 |
kim il sung books: Korea and Two Regimes Sŏng-chʻŏl Yang, 1981 |
kim il sung books: Friend Nam-nyong Paek, 2020 Paek Nam-nyong's Friend is a tale of marital intrigue, abuse, and divorce in North Korea. A woman in her thirties comes to a courthouse petitioning for a divorce. As the judge who hears her statement begins to investigate the case, the story unfolds into a broader consideration of love and marriage. The novel delves into its protagonists' past, describing how the couple first fell in love and then how their marriage deteriorated over the years. It chronicles the toll their acrimony takes on their son and their careers alongside the story of the judge's own marital troubles. A best-seller in North Korea, where Paek continues to live and write, Friend illuminates a side of life in the DPRK that Western readers have never before encountered. Far from being a propagandistic screed in praise of the Great Leader, Friend describes the lives of people who struggle with everyday problems such as marital woes and workplace conflicts. Instead of socialist-realist stock figures, Paek depicts complex characters who wrestle with universal questions of individual identity, the split between public and private selves, the unpredictability of existence, and the never-ending labor of maintaining a relationship. This groundbreaking translation of one of North Korea's most popular writers offers English-language readers a page-turner full of psychological tension as well as a revealing portrait of a society that is typically seen as closed to the outside world. |
kim il sung books: The Hermit King Chung Min Lee, 2019-11-05 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. |
kim il sung books: Origins of the North Korean Garrison State Youngjun Kim, 2017-08-09 This book investigates the origins of the North Korean garrison state by examining the development of the Korean People’s Army and the legacies of the Korean War. Despite its significance, there are very few books on the Korean People’s Army with North Korean primary sources being difficult to access. This book, however, draws on North Korean documents and North Korean veterans’ testimonies, and demonstrates how the Korean People’s Army and the Korean War shaped North Korea into a closed, militarized and xenophobic garrison state and made North Korea seek Juche (Self Reliance) ideology and weapons of mass destruction. This book maintains that the youth and lower classes in North Korea considered the Korean People’s Army as a positive opportunity for upward social mobility. As a result, the North Korean regime secured its legitimacy by establishing a new class of social elites wherein they offered career advancements for persons who had little standing and few opportunities under the preceding Japanese dominated regime. These new elites from poor working and peasant families became the core supporters of the North Korean regime today. In addition, this book argues that, in the aftermath of the Korean War, a culture of victimization was established among North Koreans which allowed Kim Il Sung to use this culture of fear to build and maintain the garrison state. Thus, this work illustrates how the North Korean regime has garnered popular support for the continuation of a militarized state, despite the great hardships the people are suffering. This book will be of much interest to students of North Korea, the Korean War, Asian politics, Cold War Studies, military and strategic studies, and international history. |
kim il sung books: North Korea's Supreme Leaders The New York Times Editorial Staff, 2018-12-15 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. |
kim il sung books: Human Rights Discourse in North Korea Jiyoung Song, 2010-12-16 Jiyoung Song explains how North Korea has understood the concepts of human rights in its public documents since the independence in 1945 from Japan after 36 years’ colonial rule. Through active campaigns and international criticism, foreign governments and non-governmental organisations outside North Korea have been publishing numerous allegations on North Korean human rights violations. On the other hand, the efforts to engage with North Korea in order to improve the human rights situation through humanitarian assistance and to understand how North Koreans interpret human rights are often overshadowed by “naming and shaming” and “push-until-it-collapses” approaches. Dr Song gives thought-provoking and highly debatable accounts for the historically post-colonial, politically Marxist and culturally Confucian elements of North Korean rights thinking. She does this by closely reading and analysing collected works of Kim Il Sung (previous leader) and Kim Jong Il (current leader and Kim Il Sung’s son), North Korea’s official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, and others monthly party magazines as well as by interviewing North Korean defectors and diplomats in South Korea, China and Europe. |
kim il sung books: I Escaped North Korea! Ellie Crowe, Scott Peters, 2018-11-29 Fans of New York Times Bestseller Lauren Tarshis's I Survived Series have an exciting new book to look forward to. From multi-award-winning Ellie Crowe and bestselling children's author Scott Peters comes a gripping story about one refugee's escape from the oppression of North Korea. 14-year-old Dae has been taught that his country's fearless leaders are like gods. Yet the painfully skinny boy can't help wondering if something's off, because all his family has to eat is watery porridge made from grass. At school, Dae and his friends are so hungry that it's hard to play 'Bash the American' in the schoolyard. In class, the boys and girls bow before the leaders' giant portraits, their clothes flapping around their bony limbs. Dae begins to question why their rulers look so well fed. When Dae's beloved parents fall into trouble, the young teen must fend for himself. Dae begins to dream of rebellion--of fleeing across the forbidden border into China to look for work. For how else can he help free his family? But can the starving boy survive the deadly crossing? It would take all of his remaining strength to succeed. Still, Dae becomes certain of one thing . . . He must escape! Young readers will be transported by this new series about smart kids who have what it takes to survive. |
kim il sung books: Selected Works [of] Kim Il Sung Il-sŏng Kim, 1971 |
kim il sung books: King of Spies Blaine Harden, 2018-10-02 The New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Camp 14 returns with the untold story of one of the most powerful spies in American history, shedding new light on the U.S. role in the Korean War, and its legacy In 1946, master sergeant Donald Nichols was repairing jeeps on the sleepy island of Guam when he caught the eye of recruiters from the army's Counter Intelligence Corps. After just three months' training, he was sent to Korea, then considered a backwater and beneath the radar of MacArthur's Pacific Command. Though he lacked the pedigree of most U.S. spies—Nichols was a 7th grade dropout—he quickly metamorphosed from army mechanic to black ops phenomenon. He insinuated himself into the affections of America’s chosen puppet in South Korea, President Syngman Rhee, and became a pivotal player in the Korean War, warning months in advance about the North Korean invasion, breaking enemy codes, and identifying most of the targets destroyed by American bombs in North Korea. But Nichols's triumphs had a dark side. Immersed in a world of torture and beheadings, he became a spymaster with his own secret base, his own covert army, and his own rules. He recruited agents from refugee camps and prisons, sending many to their deaths on reckless missions. His closeness to Rhee meant that he witnessed—and did nothing to stop or even report—the slaughter of tens of thousands of South Korean civilians in anticommunist purges. Nichols’s clandestine reign lasted for an astounding eleven years. In this riveting book, Blaine Harden traces Nichols's unlikely rise and tragic ruin, from his birth in an operatically dysfunctional family in New Jersey to his sordid postwar decline, which began when the U.S. military sacked him in Korea, sent him to an air force psych ward in Florida, and subjected him—against his will—to months of electroshock therapy. But King of Spies is not just the story of one American spy. It is a groundbreaking work of narrative history that—at a time when North Korea is threatening the United States with long-range nuclear missiles—explains the origins of an intractable foreign policy mess. |
kim il sung books: A Thousand Miles to Freedom Eunsun Kim, Sébastien Falletti, 2015-07-21 Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated. By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun was in danger of the same. Finally, her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister, not knowing that they were embarking on a journey that would take them nine long years to complete. Before finally reaching South Korea and freedom, Eunsun and her family would live homeless, fall into the hands of Chinese human traffickers, survive a North Korean labor camp, and cross the deserts of Mongolia on foot. Now, Eunsun is sharing her remarkable story to give voice to the tens of millions of North Koreans still suffering in silence. Told with grace and courage, her memoir is a riveting exposé of North Korea's totalitarian regime and, ultimately, a testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit. |
kim il sung books: Soldiers on the Cultural Front Tatiana Gabroussenko, 2010-07-26 In 1946 Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Il Sung described the country's writers as soldiers on the cultural front, thus clearly defining what the nascent Communist regime expected from its intellectuals. As a result, many literary nonentities were rewarded with fame and success (often only to be relegated once again to obscurity within a few years) while many outstanding luminaries of the past were erased from the pages of official publications or even lost their lives. The Soviet cultural impact brought new tropes, artistic images, and rhetoric, which were quickly absorbed into the North Korean discourse. However, the cultural politics of the DPRK and the USSR revealed profound and irreconcilable disparities that were rooted in the different political conditions and traditions of each country. -- Book Jacket. |
kim il sung books: On Juche in Our Revolution Il-sŏng Kim, 1975 |
kim il sung books: On Socialist Pedagogy Kim Il Sung, 2001-12-01 This book contains speeches and writings of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung on the subject of raising and teaching children. His thoughts offer interesting insights into the communist philosophy of education, at least as practiced in North Korea. |
kim il sung books: Revolution and Socialist Construction in Korea Il-sŏng Kim, 1971 |
kim il sung books: See You Again in Pyongyang Travis Jeppesen, 2018 From ballistic missile tests to stranger-than-fiction stories of purges and assassinations, news from North Korea never fails to dominate the global headlines. But what is life there actually like? In -- See You Again in Pyongyang is an essential addition to the literature about one of the world's most fascinating and mysterious places. |
Kim Kardashian - Wikipedia
Following the closure of her cosmetics and fragrance brands, Kardashian founded her skincare line, Sknn by Kim, in 2022. [7] She has released a variety of products tied to her name, including the …
Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian) • Instagram photos and videos
357M Followers, 346 Following, 6,412 Posts - Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian) on Instagram: "@SKIMS @SKKYPARTNERS"
Kim Kardashian | Biography, Children, & Facts | Britannica
Jun 7, 2025 · Kim Kardashian (born October 21, 1980, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) is an American television personality and entrepreneur who garnered international fame for her personal life, …
Kim Kardashian Celebrates North West’s 12th Birthday - E! Online
16 hours ago · Kim—who also shares kids Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 5, with Kanye—rounded out the photo set with a picture of her hands bearing gold rings that spell out North’s name. …
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kimkim: Online Travel Agency for Multi-Day Itineraries & Experiences
Best of Costa Rica in 7 Days: Explore Jungles, Volcanoes and Beaches. With a mix of rugged jungles, active volcanoes and world-class beaches, Costa Rica offers some of the best natural …
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Kim Kardashian - Kids, Age & Facts - Biography
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Kim by Rudyard Kipling Plot Summary - LitCharts
Kim travels to Lucknow with Colonel Creighton, who tells him of his intention to turn Kim into a chain-man—a British informant in the Great Game, a war of espionage between British and …