Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea

I have just finsihed this book and I must say that I really found it interesting. As an introduction to DPRNK history, culture, politics and economics it is pretty rudimentary, but interesting. I'll begin with what I enjoyed.

Firstly, the author is quite a clear writer in that he is not un-neccessarily verbose and generally moves his discussion on at at good pace. By discussing the regime in a range of terms, he provides both a good background to the country and scope for interpretation. He is clear and concise and affords time to alternative viewpoints. All in all, I enjoyed the style of writing as a casual read on the bus, but it was not hugely academic which was a bit frustrating.

The stories from refugee's were interesting. Given that I have never been to DPRNK, I have no first hand experience and affording some time to said experiences benifitted the flow and the content of the book. What is, I feel, particulary commendable, is that he accepts and discussses the alternative views to the quotes. On several occassions the author does volunteer reasons as to why the interviewed accounts may not be totally accurate. This is not done to discredit them in any way, rather it serves as an immediate example as to how the facts are skewed in any political regime to suit the purpose.

The content is interesting. By drawing on a range of sources, the book is quite diverse, if a little undetailed on occassions. That said, the subject is one I find fascinating and if you are interested in North Korea you will find a suprising amout of depth regarding certain points, and food for thought in the book. This is the greatest strength in the book - it encourages you to think and leaves the reader to interpret and analyse what the author discusses. At no point is he doctrinal or preachy (interestingly, offering time to how Kim Jong-Il can be defended), he is generally fair.

In criticism, the over all structure of the book is a little bit off. Rather than sketching and then detailing a picture of exactlly what a rogue regime is and how DPRNK fits this description, the book discusses DPRNK. This is not a problem as such, but it does mean that the comparisons with the other rogue regimes are not always relevant. This criticism is, perhaps a bit unusual, but if you read the book "the corporation", you will see a very well written essay on how corporations exhibit psychotic behaviour. However, on occasions here, the comparisons dont always add to the context of a rogue regime.

There is a lack of detail. Now, given what this books goals were, as an introduction it is good, but on a few occassions I was left feeling like I had missed a few lines / paragraphs. This was not the case (barring a very strange printing), but I did feel that more detail would have helped.

Finally, one thing that I really was frustrated with was the use of footnotes. I had hoped and expected the use of detailed explanatoryy notes, but instead these were pretty limited. The reson I am including this as a criticism was that on several occassions I turned to an endnote and discovered not explanation or expansion of a point, but just a reference regarding the quote. Of course , there were one or two expansions, but it was something I felf could have been improved upon.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book, it made my mornign commute interesting. It is entertaining, saddening, worrrying and indeed shocking, just not enough. Perhaps the book would have been improved if its scope had have been narrowed and its detail increased and rather than trying to define a rogue regime and offer a general solution of how to deal with said regimes, the book could have detailed DPRNK and detailed its direct potential solutions.

It comes reccomended and as a passionate, entertaining introduciton to DPRNK, its worth a read. I guess the greatest praise I can give it that it was I was left wanting more. The book stimulated my interest in the subject and I helped me think more analytically about the country.

Kindest,

DD

Eye opener. (1/1 people found this helpful)

This is the first political book i have read for a while,but after everything about the goings on there involving nuclear tests,and hearing their leader(Kim Jong Il) described as a mad-man by journalists, curiosity got the better of me and i thought i would buy,and read Jasper Becker's book to find out more.
The book is very interesting 70% of the time but you have to turn your concentration levels up to eleven for the remaining 30%,especially the history harking back to Kim Il Sung in the 1940's.I wanted to know more about whats happening now, and when Jasper Becker did go into detail about the extravagance and greed,and criminal international dealings,and how unfairly Kim Jong Il treats his people;the book had my full attention.So on that merit i can say it is very well written.So if you think you have got it bad at work,or life in general, just think about what those poor people in North Korea have to go though and,well things don't seem so bad after all.By the way if you were to write something like this in N:Korea there would be hell to pay.

over reacting on hear say stories (6/12 people found this helpful)

Although Jasper Beckers is a great narrator, his book did disappoint me a lot. His whole story is based on hear-say without having been in the DPRK in something like 20 years. His book contains dozens of terrible stories of refugees or people who said to be refugee. Most stories will bring you to a sort of 21st century concentration camp of which their is no escape. (Although all his 'first hand eye witnesses' managed to escape one or more times.)

Reading his book is like seeing a horror movie. Everything is so devastating horrible that one is really waiting for any sort of proof of all the terror being true.... But their he fails. Jasper Beckers only argument is that he heard so many bad stories about the country that it can not be untrue. He simply states that he spoke to many people who all were negative about the DPRK to ignore them.

So if you want a well written page turner BUY THIS BOOK. If you want to have a decent book on the DPRK just look further.

Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea

Jasper Becker

Reader Reviews:

I wanted to give this 3.5.... (0/0 people found this helpful)

Eye opener. (1/1 people found this helpful)

over reacting on hear say stories (6/12 people found this helpful)

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