Search results for ""Author James Pearson""

**Named one of the best books of 2015 by The Economist** Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors.North Korea is one of the most troubled societies on earth. The country's 24 million people live under a violent dictatorship led by a single family, which relentlessly pursues the development of nuclear arms, which periodically incites risky military clashes with the larger, richer, liberal South, and which forces each and every person to play a role in the "theater state" even as it pays little more than lip service to the wellbeing of the overwhelming majority. With this profoundly anachronistic system eventually failed in the 1990s, it triggered a famine that decimated the countryside and obliterated the lives of many hundreds of thousands of people. However, it also changed the lives of those who survived forever. A lawless form of marketization came to replace the iron rice bowl of work in state companies, and the Orwellian mind control of the Korean Workers' Party was replaced for many by dreams of trade and profit. A new North Korea Society was born from the horrors of the era—one that is more susceptible to outside information than ever before with the advent of k-pop and video-carrying USB sticks. This is the North Korean society that is described in this book. In seven fascinating chapters, the authors explore what life is actually like in modern North Korea today for the ordinary "man and woman on the street." They interview experts and tap a broad variety of sources to bring a startling new insider's view of North Korean society—from members of Pyongyang's ruling families to defectors from different periods and regions, to diplomats and NGOs with years of experience in the country, to cross-border traders from neighboring China, and textual accounts appearing in English, Korean and Chinese sources. The resulting stories reveal the horror as well as the innovation and humor which abound in this fascinating country.

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What is life in North Korea really like?This fascinating book by celebrated journalists Daniel Tudor and James Pearson explores that very question. The authors interview experts and tap a broad variety of sources to provide a startling insider's view of the secretive North Korean society, including: Members of Pyongyang's ruling families Defectors from different periods and regions Foreign diplomats and NGOs with years of experience in the country Cross-border traders from neighboring China Textual accounts appearing in English, Korean and Chinese sources This book reveals that ordinary North Koreans, poor and rich alike, enjoy listening to K-pop music and are addicted to South Korean TV dramas—in direct contravention of government dictates. Pirated foreign movies and shows—American, South Korean and Chinese—are often smuggled into the country and sold. Such snippets of information help the reader understand that North Korea is undergoing dynamic changes, affecting the 24 million people who call it home.This new edition is updated with an afterword by the authors that touches on Kim Jong-un's recent meetings with Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in. While the new foreword by Andray Abrahamian—a member of the U.S. National Committee on North Korea—offers a detailed analysis of North Korea's political discourse, changes in economic policy, and the rise and fall of optimism within the country since 2018.

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