Books about modern Pyongyang?

April 20, 2007 9:24 AM

What are some good non-academic books about North Korea?

I've recently become interested in present-day North Korea, specifically the strangeness of Pyongyang. I enjoyed Delisle's "Pyongyang," the documentary "A State of Mind," Church's "A Corpse in the Koryo," and an episode of National Geographic Explorer where they went to North Korea with an eye surgeon.

What should I read or watch next? I'm looking for similar light, read-in-my-few-spare-moments books and DVDs, not political economy texts.

posted by The corpse in the library to media & arts (12 comments total)

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader by Bradley K. Martin is a big fat book, but not at all academic. It has lots of fascinating interviews with defectors from different walks of life. Most of the chapters stand on their own to a large extent, so you don't necessarily need to plow through it.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 9:38 AM on April 20, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Maybe not exactly present-day North Korea, but A Year in Pyongyang is an interesting read about someone's experience living in Pyongyang in the mid 80s.
posted by minimal at 9:49 AM on April 20, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I started reading Aquariums of Pyonyang in a bookstore and couldn't put it down.
posted by GarageWine at 9:56 AM on April 20, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Second Aquariums of Pyongyang. A tragic, vivid, memorable book.
posted by ibmcginty at 10:46 AM on April 20, 2007

London's Financial Times has been printing some good articles on North Korea this week. It's Kim Il Sung's (aka The Fatherly Leader) birthday and they actually allowed Anna Fifield into the country to do some reporting, albeit with a "keeper" escorting her. You can read her dispatches here.

Check the "Further Reading" section of Wikipedia's North Korea entry for more suggestions.
posted by HotPatatta at 10:49 AM on April 20, 2007

Third Aquariums. Terrifying.

Guy Delisle's book is also good.
posted by deern the headlice at 11:03 AM on April 20, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Rogue Regime, by Jasper Becker.

I don't have a high tolerance for academic tomes (I usually read fiction), but I had no problem reading this. There were a few eerie vignettes of Pyongyang, although the bulk of the book treats the rise to power and subsequent protection of that power by Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung.
posted by tentacle at 11:44 AM on April 20, 2007

I read and enjoyed Inside the Hermit Kingdom. (It might be a bit hard to find outside Canada.) Yi Sun-Kyung was one of the first westerners allowed to visit North Korea (this was in the early '90s, I think), and the experience was incredibly bizarre and surreal.
posted by smably at 12:12 PM on April 20, 2007

There's a new detective novel set in Korea written by an anonymous CIA guy: A Corpse in the Koryo.
posted by stratastar at 6:07 PM on April 20, 2007

Seconding Guy Delisle's Pyongyang; it's an excellent memoir of a few months in North Korea as an animator, with lots of little details about aspects of the society visible in the few places Westerners are allowed to be. It's "lite" reading but surprisingly emotional, and has been praised by folks on both the left and right.
posted by mediareport at 10:17 PM on April 20, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

The best one I know of is _North Korea_ by Bruce Cumings. I just read it, in fact (and have read his _Korea's Place in the Sun_ as well).
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:33 PM on April 21, 2007

Bradt North Korea Travel Guide
posted by dzot at 9:05 PM on April 23, 2007