Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea

by Jasper Becker

Book Overview

What happens when a dictator wins absolute power and isolates a nation from the outside world? In a nightmare of political theory stretched to madness, North Korea's Kim Jong Il made himself into a living god, surrounded by lies and flattery and beyond criticism. As over two million of his subjects starved to death, Kim Jong Il roamed between palaces staffed by the most beautiful girls in the country and stocked with the most expensive delicacies...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019517044X
• ISBN13: 9780195170443
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 9.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Insight, Great Read...

Firstly, buy the book, you won't be dissapointed. Although it suffers a little from some editing quirks, it's a great "can't-put-it-down" read. Especially if you want a quick condensed history of the North Korean regime and the absolute "Looney Tunes" that run the country. If there is even an ounce of truth in any of this book then we need to afraid, very afraid!

Dismal View of a Dismal Empire

Jasper Becker is a bit of a pessimist. But when it comes to North Korea, It's pretty hard not to be a pessimist. When it comes to North Korea, I guess what you need to do is try to get as much information as possible from those who have been there, and then put that together with the history we are all more or less aware of. I think the chief value of this book is that it gives a good quick rundown of the major events that led to the current bleakness. This is useful, especially if you are not well read on the subject, and need to get up to speed quickly. Becker starts with a grisly description of the "hunt" for refugees along the North Korean border with China, where local peasants are paid a bounty to bring in escapees from the nightmare of Kim Jong ill's prison. I remember a YWAM missionary describing to me several years ago how people would call up to him when he was crossing the bridge into North Korea, begging him to drop money. The people in the northeastern part of the country have had a very tough time of it in recent years. It is hard to know exactly what is going on now, but I did see a Swedish missionary from North Korea interviewed on CCTV 9 (Beijing) a few months ago (January 2006), and he indicated that the folks in Pyongyang seem to be taking home more consumer electronics, and such items as indicate increased disposable income. So what is North Korea actually like right now? Jasper Becker's book doesn't really answer that question. The book's primary value, as mentioned, is that it provides a useful outline of the history since the founding of the religious cult that is North Korea. You will certainly not want to stop here. Philip Short's biography of Mao also gives good insight, as well as older works such as Manchester's biography of MacArthur (American Caesar), as well as MacArthur's own "Reminiscences." I think it's kinda good to have an idea how it happened that one country became two...but if you feel somewhat lost, and just need to get a quick overview, then I think this book will be helpful.

Astounding

I've read two recent books on North Korea, "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" and this "Rogue Regime" book. The first one was good, and I can recommend it. However, "Rogue Regime" was phenomenal. Becker illuminates the Kafkaesque nightmare that is North Korea in lucid prose. And it is a mesmorizing review. What makes it so fascinating is obviously the subject matter. Humanity is simply witnessing one of the most appallingly diabolical and corrupt regimes in history. Becker's accomplishment here was to capture the crushing insanity of it all. I have read this book twice now and some chapters four times. If you enjoy books covering historical and political events, this book should be at the top of your list.

Best book I've read on North Korea

If you want to read just one book on North Korea, make it this one. Becker draws on many sources to document a broad range of crimes and mismanagement by the North Korean government. He argues persuasively that human rights abuses are Kim Jong Il's biggest problem, not his nuclear weapons. Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations to control his military ambitions, he needs to be held accountable for crimes against his own people. The book is sobering, eye opening, and a must-read for anyone interested in North Korea.

a timely, well-written, and passionately argued indictment of the DPRK

One of the paradoxes of North Korea is that there is very little quality literature on the place. The books out there range from dated treatises to dry academic accounts that would put most readers to sleep. You'd think that a country as odd as North Korea would get more coverage, particularly because of the nuclear issue and its bellicose behavior. Jasper Becker's "Rogue Regime" is like a breath of fresh air in this stale library. He writes very well and manages to do it in language and terms that people who aren't academics will find accessible and informative. But the true merit of "Rogue Regime" is that it fills another gap in the literature about the DPRK. Becker is not afraid to call Kim Jong-Il and his regime something that is evil. Most of the literature that has recently appeared shrinks from doing this. Instead, such books argue about the need to "engage" with Kim Jong-Il in order to reach "a grand bargain" with him. Such books suffer from a central flaw. They all seem to radiate the belief that if only the US is smart enough, diplomatic enough, or just "good enough" everything will be sunshine and roses for us in North Korea and other trouble spots in the world. Such a world view is breathtakingly naive because it refuses to admit that sometimes bad things can happen and evil can exist without having a "root cause" in the sins of America or the West. Kim Jong-Il and North Korea constitute such evil in my opinion. This being said, Becker's book is not perfect. I think it could have been better sourced in some spots and the hypothetical scenario of a US attack on North Korea at the beginning of the book could have used some editing by someone more familiar with the US military. But those are minor things. The bottom line is as Becker argues that there is a moral question we should not ignore when we treat with North Korea. I commend him for not letting the world forget that. I also find myself wondering why all the various "champions of the world's oppressed" like the benighted reviewer who condemned the book as "neocon gothick" are awol on the North Korean human rights issue. Maybe they're happier criticizing allies of the US for far lesser sins than what is going on in the DPRK. *** Also, I'd like to respond to the allegation by the "neocon gothick" reviewer that the North Korean famine of the 1990s (aka "the Final March to Paradise" in regime-speak) was caused partly by the Japanese cut-off of funds from the Korean diaspora there in the 1993-1994. First, not even the North Koreans blame the Japanese for helping to cause the famine. They blamed in on crop failures. Second, even if the Japanese cut off of funds (which was by no means airtight) helped cause the famine, Japan was fully in its rights to block the transfer of money to a country that has consistently been hostile to it (abducting its citizens, violating its laws, etc). Third, between 1996 and 2000, the US donated over 1.3 million tons of food to No