Impossible State

Product Description

Much discussed & often maligned precious little is known or understood about North Korea the world's most controversial & isolated country. In The Impossible State" Victor Cha pulls back the curtain providing an unprecedented insight into North Korea's history the rise of the Kim family dynasty & the obsessive personality cult that surrounds them. He illuminates the repressive regime's complex economy & culture its appalling record of human-rights abuses its belligerent relationship with its neighbours & the United States & analyzes the regime's major security issues
- from the seemingly endless war with its southern counterpart to its terrifying nuclear ambitions
- all in the light of the destabilizing effects of Kim Jong-il's recent death. How has this enigmatic nation-state continued to survive when it regularly violates its own citizens' inalienable rights & has suffered severe famine global economic sanctions a collapsed economy & near-total isolation from the rest of the world? Cha reveals a land facing a pivotal & disquieting transition of power from tyrannical father to inexperienced son & 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 & his tenure as a White House adviser this engagingly written authoritative & highly accessible account offers much-needed answers to the most pressing questions about North Korea & ultimately warns of a regime that might be closer to its end than many might think
- a political collapse for which the Western world may be woefully unprepared."