justynakaliwoda

By the standards of contemporary histories, this is a flawed work. But its flaws reflect the 60 years of isolation and self-aggrandizement more particular weaknesses of the author. Simply put, there is no adequate base of academic works from which to write a comprehensive political history of North Korea. So Mr. Martin should be forgiven for quoting and being less than successful at dissecting the alternate-histories written and disseminated by the regime. Similarly, Mr. Martin should be forgiven for his journalists' over-reliance on defector's stories and informants' anecdotes without supporting data from government and academic sources and reports. In the end, Mr. Martin does a reasonably good job at shining light on the North Korean enigma. If you've wondered what motivates the North Korean government to pursue a series of seemingly self-destructive militaristic misadventures, this book--or at least the last third of it--is a good resource.

2022-11-14 18:43