Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea 1st Edition by Jasper Becker (PDF)

Description

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 and come to life, 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 beautiful girls and stocked with expensive international delicacies. Outside, the steel mills shut down, the trains stopped running, the power went out, and the hospitals ran out of medicine. When the population threatened to revolt, Kim imposed a reign of terror, deceived the United Nations, and plundered the country’s dwindling resources to become a nuclear power. Now this tiny bankrupt nation is using her nuclear capability to blackmail the United States. Veteran correspondent Jasper Becker takes us inside one of the most secretive countries in the world, exposing the internal chaos, blind faith, rampant corruption, and terrifying cruelty of its rulers. Becker details the vain efforts to change North Korea by actors inside and outside the country and the dangers this highly volatile country continues to pose. This unique land, ruled by one family’s megalomania and paranoia, seems destined to survive and linger on, a menace to its own people and to the rest of the world. But should the nations of the world allow this regime to survive? That’s the question with which this book concludes.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Becker makes a powerful case for defining Kim once and for all–not as an ordinary, if nuclear-tipped, dictator, but as an extraordinarily skillful tyrant presiding over the worst man-made catastrophe in modern history…. A highly readable narrative that unearths Kim’s history, probes his decision-making style and details the grotesque consequences of those decisions. His book is a subtle plea to the world to expand its focus beyond the–admittedly important–nuclear issue to the vast humanitarian catastrophe unfolding under Kim Jong Il’s gaze.”–Joshua Kurlantzick, New York Times Book Review”A tough but even-handed treatment of the subject.”–Andrew Scobell for Parameters”A very timely book…. Not for the faint-hearted. Mr. Becker takes an unblinking look at a dark regime that has made North Korea an international pariah, has elevated its rulers to the status of gods, and through torture and indoctrination reduced its subjects to virtual slaves…. The facts almost defy belief.”–William Grimes, The New York Times”A good new look at North Korea.”–Nicholas Kristof, The New York Observer”One of the few reporters to have firsthand experience of North Korea, veteran Asian correspondent Becker adds more nuance to a familiar story that the threat of nuclear arms, as well as the world’s fifth largest standing army, are part of an attempt to force the rest of the globe to cater to a mad leader’s megalomaniacal world…. Images of this grim state of affairs–which goes well beyond the Orwellian into the Kafkaesque–have been smuggled out over the past few years; how they came to be is described with rare concision by Becker…. Becker minces no words in warning that we may now have no way out of a monstrous situation.”–Publishers Weekly”Really is required reading. Becker, one of the few Western reporters to spend time in the Stalinist state, details the megalomania of Kim Jong Il–who staffed his palaces with the country’s most beautiful women–and the madness of his regime, under which 2 million Koreans have reportedly died of starvation.”–New York Post”Jasper Becker is already known as one of the sharpest observers of contemporary China–and with Rogue Regime he immediately establishes himself as a premier observer, and critic, of Kim Jong Il’s North Korea. Readers of this devastating book will be hard pressed to gainsay Becker’s assertion that this dynastic dictatorship genuinely empowers evil–or to turn away from Becker’s conclusion that only regime change is likely to bring a better life to the millions of ordinary North Koreans suffering under the Dear Leader’s rule.”–Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy, The American Enterprise Institute”By giving us an engrossing and well-documented examination of the North Korean regime, Becker proves that Kim Jong Il is in a category of tyranny all on his own and that engagement and appeasement only strengthen him. If you care at all about the slow and certain genocide of the North Korean people, he makes a powerful case for why regime change is the only answer.” –Suzanne Scholte, President, Defense Forum Foundation”Jasper Becker has warned us about North Korea, as a journalist with a sharp eye and an historian with perspective. North Korea with its bizarre cult of personality, its failed economy, its crackpot ideology and its relentless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction is a major challenge in the twenty-first century. The reader will learn of the cunning control freaks who run the country. Becker’s convincing book will make the task of the apologists for North Korea that much more difficult.” –James Lilley, Former American Ambassador to South Korea and China”Rogue Regime is the companion work to Jasper Becker’s Hungry Ghosts, his earlier, well-documented account of 30 million famine deaths in Mao’s China. Once again he pulls back a heavy veil of secrecy and reveals the immense suffering of the people of North Korea.” –Dean Hirsch, President, World Vision International About the Author Jasper Becker has worked as a foreign correspondent for twenty years, including eleven years based in Beijing. He has written four books on the region, which have been translated into seven languages. His most recent work is The Chinese.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Jasper Becker does an excellent job detailing the rise to power of Kim il Sung and his struggles with the totally psychotic Kim Jong Il.The book is well written and explores the horrific conditions North Koreans endure as well as the Machiavellian manner that Jong Il treats those close to him.Becker derives most of his information from interviews with North Koreans who have escaped, but also uses military intel and his own travels there to craft a startling picture.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in NK (I’d also be remiss if I didn’t ferverently recommend “Aquariums of Pyongyang, one of the finest books ever written on this subject.)One caveat comes to mind however: The opening chapter examining what might occur in case of a military strike against NK is just down right hokey, and I’d implore the reader to carry on as it gets much better.

⭐Very good book, though the topic is intensely disturbing. The author does an admirable job of presenting the subject matter in an unbiased manner, aware that there is a potential for inaccuracy when forced to rely on personal accounts and anecdotes. The book also shows the blundering and dunder-headedness that paved the DPRK’s way to becoming a nuclear power intent on spreading chaos and death where ever it can. Thanks, Jimmy Carter!Without advocating against appeasement outright, the author demonstrates how the Kims have always played South Korean and Western hopes against us to their great advantage. It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to promote conciliatory methods to reunification like the Sunshine Policy. After all, sunshine itself is the result of a nuclear explosion.

⭐”Rogue Regime” by Jasper Becker contains interesting information, but many of his assertions are not properly footnoted. The book is also very poorly edited–even containing some grammatical errors. I’m astounded that the publisher, Oxford University Press, did not provide a better editor for a book on such an important topic..

⭐Poor Becker needs to check his geography more closely. Only a few pages into his book, I note that he has the Yellow Sea on the EAST coast of Korea — wrong! Then he invents a scenario in which North Korea is attacked by the US and the North does NOT respond with a barrage of rockets and missiles targeting Seoul and other parts of South Korea — quite improbable! After reading only 10% of the book, I am giving up. The author just hasn’t got his stuff together. It would seem that being a journalist is poor training to be a WRITER. Further, the book was bound into its hardcover upside down — pretty shabby quality control for Oxford University Press! I bought the book as used for a low low price and thus won’t bother asking for a refund. However, this book is definitely not worth much at all — it is now in the trash. Save your money!

⭐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.

⭐A touch misleading in the intent of the book, but well written and insightful.

⭐I think this book offers many valuable insights into North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Il. First of all it demonstrates how difficult it is to truly understand what takes place inside the country. The North has a successful and prolonged history of manipulating the outside world in an attempt to perpetuate its power and gain an edge in all negotiations. And yet at times it seems that the Kims –Kim Jong Il and, before him,his father Kim Il Sung–have been ready to make a deal and that opportunities have been missed. Should the world make a deal with a ruthless dictator who seems to have purposely starved many of his own people, perhaps even millions of them, to retain power? If so, what kind of deal would it be and who would it benefit? And most importantly, can a deal really be done? If North Korea did open up to the world,disarm and allow inspectors to freely roam through the country would Kim Jong Il’s regime survive? Wouldn’t the spell be broken and the North Korean people at their first taste of freedom dispose of him? And doesn’t he believe this? Shouldn’t he? And if he does, isn’t it obvious that no deal will be made, ever? And if no deal will ever be made, how long does the world allow someone like Kim Jong Il to remain in power? There are no easy answers to these questions. Each potential solution to the problem of North Korea is filled with unsettling ramifications and dangerous consequences. But perhaps the most unsettling thing about reading this book is the understanding that sooner or later the status quo will come to an end, however long it takes, and that when this occurs it may precipate the loss of millions of lives.I give this book three and half stars because it contains quite a number of typos and at times the author is confusing in his use of dates. While trying to make a point about something that occured in the 1990s for example, he might immediately bring up something in the 1960s as supportive evidence. I periocially became confused as to what time he was referring to he did this so often. There are also some interesting things he mentions but doe not provide any footnotes for. He mentioned at one point that Kim Jong Il sent four North Koreans to study to become Russian Orthodx priests after he visited a Russian catherdral and was impressed with its architecture. If true, it suggests that Kim Jong Il is impulsive and eccentric; however, Becker doesn’t explain where he got this information from. As others have commented, the book would have benefited from better editing.

⭐An insight into a nasty rgime. Lots of the items in the book are what I saw in DPRK.

⭐Great book, jumps around a bit but an interesting read about a regime that clearly has a lot to answer for regarding the welfare of it’s people. We should not be complacent about what is going on outside our very comfortable UK bubble

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