Books like North of the DMZ by A. N. Lanʹkov

The Orphan Master's Son follows a man's journey through propaganda, identity, and state power in North Korea.

Masaji Ishikawa, born half-Korean and half-Japanese, chronicles a life of displacement and oppression after his family relocated to North Korea, where they became ensnared in the lowest social caste under a brutal communist regime.

“Though it is much discussed and often maligned, precious little is known or understood about North Korea, the world's most controversial and isolated country. In The Impossible State, seasoned international-policy expert and lauded scholar Victor Cha pulls back the curtain, providing the best look yet at North Korea's history, the rise of the Kim family dynasty, and the obsessive personality cult that empowers them. He illuminates the repressive regime's complex economy and culture, its appalling record of human-rights abuses, and its belligerent relationship with the United States, and analyzes the regime's major security issues—from the seemingly endless war with its southern neighbor to its frightening nuclear ambitions—all in light of the destabilizing effects of Kim Jong-il's recent death. How this enigmatic nation-state—one that regularly violates its own citizens' inalienable rights and has suffered famine, global economic sanctions, a collapsed economy, and near total isolation from the rest of the world—has continued to survive has long been a question that preoccupies the West. Cha reveals a land of contradictions, one facing a pivotal and disquieting transition of power from tyrannical father to inexperienced son, and delves into the ideology that leads an oppressed, starving populace to cling so fiercely to its failed leadership. With rare personal anecdotes from the author's time in Pyongyang and his tenure as an adviser in the White House, this engagingly written, authoritative, and highly accessible history offers much-needed answers to the most pressing questions about North Korea and ultimately warns of a regime that might be closer to its end than many might think—a political collapse for which America and its allies may be woefully unprepared.” BOOK JACKET

Alyna Kim, formerly Eunsun, shares her nine‑year escape from North Korea, revealing the harsh realities of political persecution, famine, and state‑run self‑criticism that shaped her life and her family’s fight for freedom.

"This new edition of Paul French's acclaimed introduction to North Korea provides an up-to-the-minute overview of the politics, economics and history of the DPRK, with added chapters dealing with recent events. A new foreword examines why North Korea remains an issue in world politics and argues that an understanding of the country is more important now than ever. A new in-depth postscript offers analysis of recent years, why Pyongyang felt compelled to test a bomb and revert to blatant nuclear diplomacy, and how the crisis can be resolved peacefully."--Jacket.

273 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : map, portraits ; 22 cm1010L Lexile

North Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. Its citizens are told their home is the greatest nation on earth. Big Brother is always watching. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality. Award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney is one of the few foreign journalists to have witnessed the devastating reality of life in the controversial and isolated nation of North Korea, having entered the country undercover, posing as a university professor with a group of students from the London School of Economics. Huge factories with no staff or electricity; hospitals with no patients; uniformed child soldiers; and the world-famous and eerily empty DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone, where North Korea ends and South Korea begins - all framed by the relentless flow of regime propaganda from omnipresent loudspeakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty and the slightest sign of discontent. Drawing on his own experiences and his extensive interviews with defectors and other key witnesses, John Sweeney's North Korea Undercover pulls back the curtain, providing a rare insight into life there today, examining the country's troubled history and addressing important questions about its uncertain future.

A comprehensive examination of contemporary North Korean society, revealing how the country’s social, economic, and political structures have evolved since the 1990s famine, through firsthand accounts from officials, defectors, diplomats, and traders.