North Korea

Description

Depicted as an insular and forbidding police state with an "insane" dictator at its helm, North Korea - charter member of Bush's "Axis of Evil" - is a country the U.S. loves to hate. Now the CIA says it possesses nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, as well as long-range missiles capable of delivering them to America's West Coast. But, as Bruce Cumings demonstrates in this provocative, lively read, the story of the U.S.-Korea conflict is more complex than American leaders or news media would have us believe. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Korea, and on declassified government reports, Cumings traces that story, from the brutal Korean War to the present crisis. Harboring no illusions regarding the totalitarian Kim Jong II regime, Cumings nonetheless insists on a more nuanced approach. The result is both a counter-narrative to the official U.S. - and North Korean - version and a fascinating portrayal of North Korea; a country that suffers through foreign invasions, natural disasters, and its own internal contradictions, yet somehow continues to survive.

Bruce Cumings is the author of Parallax Visions: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations, Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History, War and Television, and the two-volume study, The Origins of the Korean War.

"In the battle to open closed Western minds, this tart and witty broadside makes an excellent start. And in chronicling the dire results of an earlier imperial interference, it's full of omens for the current one in Iraq." - The Financial Times"