16 North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society by Jieun Baek | Goodreads

North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society by Jieun Baek | Goodreads





North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society

by
Jieun Baek (Goodreads Author)
3.93 · Rating details · 238 ratings · 30 reviews

The story of North Korea's information underground and how it inspires people to seek better lives beyond their country’s borders

One of the least understood countries in the world, North Korea has long been known for its repressive regime. Yet it is far from being an impenetrable black box. Media flows covertly into the country, and fault lines are appearing in the government’s sealed informational borders. Drawing on deeply personal interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, ranging from propaganda artists to diplomats, Jieun Baek tells the story of North Korea’s information underground—the network of citizens who take extraordinary risks by circulating illicit content such as foreign films, television shows, soap operas, books, and encyclopedias. By fostering an awareness of life outside North Korea and enhancing cultural knowledge, the materials these citizens disseminate are affecting the social and political consciousness of a people, as well as their everyday lives. (less)

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Hardcover, 312 pages
Published November 15th 2016 by Yale University Press
ISBN
0300217811 (ISBN13: 9780300217810)
Edition Language
English



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Mar 23, 2017Lisa rated it it was amazing
Shelves: asian-culture-and-language, korea
As someone who studies Korean culture, I have read numerous books about North Korea, defectors, and the deplorable acts of the North Korean regime. Despite heartfelt content, after a while, all these books start to blend together due to similar content. This was the first book I have read about North Korea/defectors that I felt was truly different and original from what has already been published. Baek did an amazing job interviewing defectors, NGOs, and North Korean scholars in order to depict a perfect image of how information is being transported into North Korea and changing their society. I was really moved by the empowering stories told in this book, and it has given me more appreciation for the power that information can have as "soft power" in politics.

"People say mountains change in about ten years. If something as stubborn and mammoth as a mountain can change in a decade, the hearts of ordinary North Koreans can change. I'm sure of it. I'm living proof." --Ha Young, a North Korean defector interviewed in Jieun Baek's book (less)
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Dec 30, 2017Marsha Altman rated it liked it
Shelves: china, north-korea, history
I was a little disappointed with this one, but it might just be that I've gotten picky about my books about North Korea because I've read so many so recently. It's a very recent book, so the defector stories are about people who were born during or after the famine and grew up with some free market economy, but the author jumps around never goes deep into their stories. There's also a lot of time spent on speculation about the future, which is not as interesting when you've read a lot of books on the topic. But it's not a bad book. (less)
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Dec 21, 2016Mary rated it really liked it
This book is a fascinating read. Probably the most in depth look into modern North Korea that I've come across so far.
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Apr 17, 2018Jacob rated it really liked it
Up until I read this book I hadn’t really put any overly critical thoughts into how North Korea functioned. I had pretty much painted the entire country as a giant prison camp and local life was basically just A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which may not be wrong for an absurdly large percentage of the approximately 25 million people who, after doing something desperately evil in a previous life, call this place home, but it hardly handles the strange and utterly genius underground economy Baek’s book covers.

As all oxygen for the body must be pushed from the heart, all goods must come from Pyongyang. The problem is Pyongyang’s heart is arrhythmic and murmured to the point you're lucky if anything outside your chest does anything but turn necrotic, especially during the famine of the mid to late nineties. So, say what you will of capitalism, the market, uh, found a way. Suddenly food, cloth, and eventually tech came flooding into the country for anyone who had cash in hand. Of course, most didn’t and hundreds of thousands to million still died, but the building of the Underground Silk Road that seems to have functionally defined the country’s internal economy. Doctors send patients to these merchants to buy painkillers and antibiotics during illnesses, children use it to personally request the latest episodes of their favorite dramas, thieves fence stolen coal and anything else they happen to find that could make them a won.

The stories Baek gets from the defectors from North Korea are varied and harrowing and give the book a nice personalibility towards it. Realizing that the book is about how the invasion of foreign media is causing the book’s titular ‘Hidden Revolution’ I would have gladly spent more time with the defectors who get together at buffets for meetings. These people, some of whom share nothing but the same country of birth, getting together venting, adapting, and processing the previous week/month/year in context to their previous experiences, I wanted more of that. This isn’t even a critique anymore I just want a book like that. Maybe I can get Adam Johnson to do it? He did something similar in one of his short stories in Fortune Smiles, so maybe.

The book is well enough in its writing and excellent in its research and each part builds a larger and larger mosaic of how defectors and critics interact as a sort of open secret. The problem is Baek doesn’t seem to want to assume you’ve read any part of the book besides what you are reading. She tells you and tells you and tells you some more. Which is great, but, I, I guess, what do you call it? Retain? I retain things when I read, maybe not forever put certainly over the small jump of the partition separating the book’s parts. I understood the first time you told me that people used USB drives filled with foreign dramas they bought on the black market. I understood it again when you told me that one of the defectors decided to defect to South Korea after viewing a USB drive full of dramas he’s gotten on the black market. And again when you told me that the USB drives filled with an audiobook of the Bible read in the North Korean dialect were sent via balloons into North Korea were likely picked up by black market merchants and reformatted to house foreign dramas because they could be sold for more. Why not just say more lucrative media instead of including a variation of the same fact we’ve already learned. Things like this happen frequently and allow the book to function as a series of excerpts which might be helpful if one were putting together a thesis or something, but having read it in a handful of sessions it was downright grating at time. A little creative flair in the writing and all this backchannel repetition could have been disguised or at least shunted.

As a first book about North Korea I think it did really well bringing you into the contemporary world of North Korea. If you can get past, or perhaps not even notice the things that bothered me, then this book is a phenomenal look at the strange authoritarian (or as Baek calls it: Socialist) failure North Korea seems so hell-bent on preserving. Frankly, I just would have given up once cellphones and the internet came along. Sure, you guys can have a vote, but I’m going to sponsor all of the candidates and reserve the right to have you murdered or imprisoned if you piss me off (Hurray, Oligarchy). Hell, just let Jesus in and say that he told you were the new him and the North Korean Quaternity is born! I’m rambling at this point, but seriously, authoritarianism just sounds so hard and after reading this book, just so much like clenching sand in your fist, but then I suppose so people will do anything to avoid to having to listen the plebs grouse about such tawdry things as food. (less)
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May 05, 2018Biblio Curious rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: bio-memoir, non-fiction, bookish-books
What can I possibly say about this one? My conclusion is simple, the North Koreans are geniuses. They've been limited in thought, but human curiosity has turned them into efficiency.

I think Baek was raised outside of Korea, but her insights and research tell a different story. She tells this story in such a culturally sensitive way and takes time to explain the nuances of Korean culture to help foreigners have a deeper understanding of why some things work the way they do. Both North & South stem from the same culture and of course some aspects have changed radically for the past 65 years.

With all of this in mind, Baek begins her narrative giving some insights into the mindset of North Koreans and their cultural social structure. Some of this is a blending of their shared traditions with the South and enforced culture from jong un. These insights give a great platform for the rest of her narrative. She builds on this by explaining how outside information is being smuggled into the country. She goes through a brief history of this information smuggling and brings us right up to the present time.

She includes many stories that remind us these are people just like us that she's talking about, but there is always something different about the North Koreans. They share the same qualities as us, such as love of family, concern for our children, dreams of education, capacity for a deep respect, but also the intelligence to begin questioning the reasons for giving that respect. She brings up the subtle point that a revolution may not be happening aggressively in North Korea, but there could be a much deeper, thoughtful one happening.

Finally, after reading this book, I have name to call him when speaking about him. And this is one of the final points in her book. Culturally, it's very disrespectful & she explains why, so well. (less)
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Mar 19, 2017Michael Malice rated it really liked it
an excellent primer on contemporary north Korea
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Aug 10, 2017Rebecca rated it it was amazing
A hopeful, optimistic and informative read. Jieun Baek intelligently tackles a topic I’ve been dying to explore: the dissemination of Western media and thought in North Korea through technology, and whether there is hope for mobilizing internal psychological revolution against Kim Jon Un’s regime or even for nonviolent diplomacy. Spoiler alert: it’s penetrable, but it’s a process, and I think there’s a lot of really fascinating and ultra relevant cultural study here that anyone working in east Asian diplomacy or policy would do well to know.

“Civil society organizations and possibly government-agency-powered efforts to increase the flow of information into North Korea may well be the most reasonable, sustainable, cost-effective, and peaceful way of creating positive change inside North Korea. Information dissemination is significant because North Koreans are demanding it, and an informed citizenry has more data points from which to determine its future. Access to more information gives North Korean people the agency, self-determination, and knowledge to write their own future and destiny as a nation.”

Of course, there’s no easy answer to ending the current regime in North Korea or even tackling our current nuclear standoff. Baek does the extensive work of getting to know dozens of defectors with varying stories: it is important to know how black market media, defectors, some tourism, and intense efforts at radio and psychological propaganda from outside the border have slowly started cracking borders. North Korea’s no Arab Spring revolution: the history and culture and regime are completely different from any other model and these things take time. As Baek points out, no one is going to be convinced to defect from North Korea because they watched a James Bond movie, for example. North Korea is certainly not a monolith, and different defectors with different backgrounds hold different philosophies on how to move forward. But the overwhelming firsthand intelligence proves that infiltrating the barricaded Hermit Kingdom with expanding technology combined with a large Millennial generation with different attitudes and willingness to take risks has become a more feasible option. She also discusses the feat of organizing the nearly 30,000 North Korean defectors now living abroad and whether they can be a force for revolutionizing against the regime. Then again, NGOs and mobilizing escaped defectors presents their own challenges, and South Korea has to be willing to shoulder a huge amount of cost and social change that opening borders would present. All of this requires strategy, budgeting, and a willingness on both sides to work through and toward such a drastic economic change. But all of these ideas are explored, with a variety of North Koreans.

The main philosophy that sets North Korea apart from any dictatorial governance is its self-created Juche: or self-reliance, based loosely on found Kim Il Sung’s own Christianity as well as ideological hatred of Imperialist invasion and annexation by countries like Japan and the US. In brief, it’s the twisted idea that North Korea’s isolationism is the best thing for it: relying on itself without diplomacy, trade, or interaction increases power and insulates supremacy above corrupt Imperialists (basically, the rest of the world). This is not socialism, and this obviously hasn’t worked for North Korea, instead, the government has set up a rigid system of rules in order to stoke neighbor’s distrust of each other and to force them to put trust only in the regime-government itself. In this way, revolution has been a long time coming, because there is little trust or ability to mobilize at local levels. Perhaps the country is run by a mad man, but it’s all very much based on a deeply mapped philosophical system and warped bitterness toward their enemies and invaders of the past (and present).

One concern I do have with the book is Baek’s tendency to over glorify free market capitalism as the key to North Korea’s freedom and democracy. Given her background in double-degrees from Harvard, this is not too surprising but also I feel is a little too generous and not nuanced enough in terms of how capitalism isn’t an altruistic means to democracy. She spends a fair amount of time laying out the evolution of small black market capitalistic ventures which have arguably saved the lives of thousands of North Koreans who have been forced to survive on their own wits and illegal activities, particularly since the Great Famine of the 90s. Certainly, one of the great benefits of such underground capitalist-style commerce has been a higher demand for Chinese, South Korean, and Western media, which, compounded over time, has proven key in beginning to dismantle the Juche regime and opening North Korea’s borders. However, Baek tends to reiterate homage to capitalism frequently as an economic savior of human rights and social liberty. But simply using examples of black market trade isn’t sufficient for making claims to the supremacy of pure capitalism, which she doesn’t admit. She does explain juche, but goes on to continually reference North Korea’s “socialism,” implying that North Korea operates like a socialist country which it doesn’t: there are very few government programs beyond the military, there are simply rules. Hence the starvation and forced black market that citizens use to merely survive.

It also felt often as if she was repeating information, or paraphrasing differently. A little more theory or deeper analysis in addition to the varied firsthand accounts would have been nice; nonetheless I haven’t seen many books that weave narrative with media analysis and propaganda as this one does. It’s the freshest on the market and I do highly recommend it.

. “…A broad population breakdown forwarded by several South Korean professors who have been interviewing North Koreans and studying the country for over two decades suggests that about 25 percent are intellectuals and people who have traveled abroad who basically know how the world works but continue to remain loyal; another 25 percent or so of people don’t care about anything beyond their own households and are able to generally get by; and about 25 percent of people quietly criticize the North Korean government and have grievances against the state.”

What Baek thoughtfully captures is a version of the North Korean people outside the governing authority that is not ignorant of the horrors around them or traumatized into simplicity by the terror of defecting. They’re not all victims, either: even some who defect have sordid histories of complicity with the regime and assisting torture or death of their fellow Koreans. They’re as complex as the rest of us: the people of North Korea are resilient, smart, multifaceted, and very under a rigid, fear-based control of an extreme regime. The visionaries are able to move beyond that: a lot rests on them now. As political theorist Gene Sharp is quoted: “Dictatorships are never as strong as they think they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are.”
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May 23, 2017Callista rated it it was ok
This (audio) book was tough. I felt I was just listening to the same information over and over again, worded ever so slightly differently. I do feel awful about the state of North Korea and desperately wish it were different. I feel so terribly for the people suffering under that regime. I'm thankful for the book informing me- I just wish it was presented differently. It is a tough subject though.
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May 06, 2017Ronald J. rated it really liked it
An interesting look into how films, TV shows, pop culture and other media is finding its way into the Hermit Kingdom. Will this be enough to transform the society? Probably not, but it's a start. Lots of insights from interviews with defectors from NK, all from an author who has roots in the country.
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Feb 07, 2017Megan rated it liked it
Shelves: non-fiction, history, audiobook, 2017
Audiobook.

Interesting look at how outside media is entering and impacting North Korea, based on interviews with defectors resettled in South Korea. Baek's interview participants come from a variety of North Korean backgrounds, whereas many of the defector accounts that I have read come from those who suffered the worst of North Korea,those who were sent to work camps/gulags. Though clearly based off academic research, there is not a lot of theoretical discussion in the book; the meat of the book is the interviews.

Broadly speaking, I would have liked a bit more theory, analysis, and policy discussion, as this would connect the accounts more. While the book never felt disjointed, there was not a lot of connective tissue between interviews - the overarching themes that organize interviews (audiobook format may have impacted this).

Interviewees differ on their level of closeness and trust with others - one account early in the book suggested that friendship and trust was impossible, a later one presents this as a universal human experience. A comparison of these two individuals - when they defected, their songbun statuses, their relative wealth, the level of law enforcement in the area, their perception of the proliferation of outside media in their hometowns - would have been beneficial. (less)
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Sep 11, 2018KC rated it really liked it
I traveled to North Korea with the group organized by the author, Jieun Baek, and it was fun to see that some anecdotes from our travels made it into the book.

The real strength of the book is found in the stories from defectors, describing not only their lives in North Korea, but the mindsets, feelings, and personal/intellectual breakthroughs achieved through, at least in part, access to forbidden information. It's hard to tell if we are seeing the cracks in the society, of we are just getting stories from a non-representative sample. Is the level of information leakage tolerated at it current scale, maybe something like how VPN usage is tolerated in China? If so, what we learn from these interviews may not be overly significant. On the other hand, dams can break swiftly and surely, and a breaking point may very well be in the DPRK's future.

The broader picture found in the discussion of reunification was also valuable. It is both fascinating and frightening to contemplate such futures, but even more astonishing that such a country with such conditions actually exists in 2018. (less)
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Mar 20, 2018Brian rated it it was ok
This book oddly never seems to address its own title, focusing mostly on how foreign media sparks interest in defection and giving most of the credit for transformation of North Korean society to the breakdown of the state’s ability to provide for its citizens following the famine. The prose is difficult to wade through; it often reads like a high school essay. A number of crucial political terms are used without much thought: the author refers to starving peasants selling goods to survive as “capitalists” or “capitalistic” and uses “communist” where the intent seems to be “authoritarian” or “totalitarian.” Surely the objection to the North Korean dictatorship has more to do with human rights than economics, as none of the defectors interviewed in this book talk about risking their lives for the freedom to incorporate. (less)
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Feb 22, 2018Tish Jenkins rated it really liked it
Jieun Baek’s grandfathers were both born in N Korea but got out before the Korean War. She is an American who studies N Korea and has many N Korean defector friends. The book includes history of Korea, information from defectors, and observations on how change in N Korea has occurred and can continue to occur via the influx of information from outside N Korea.

I liked the book and found it to be informative and well researched. She is clear that not all N Koreans want to leave and not all those that have left have the same feelings and opinions. Good read for anyone interested in learning more about N Korea. (less)
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Sep 13, 2017Raj Agrawal rated it really liked it
Those in information operations, and those looking to make some impact on the information environment in North Korea must include this book in your research and planning. I've studied North Korea extensively as a military strategist and planner, and done a lot of practical application in this area. There are unique insights in this book that the US is generally unaware of, especially on the military side. The approach and tone also matters, and that's addressed quite a bit here.

The writing certainly could have used more editing, and the target audience isn't clear. Still, I'm glad I read this. I highly recommend it to my colleagues. (less)
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Jul 10, 2017Oren rated it really liked it
I had previously read several books (Under the Fatherly Care of the Dear Leader, Escape From Camp 14, Aquariums of Pyongyang) but North Korea is changing quickly now, and this book allowed me to catch up. And the individual stories are still amazing and disturbing.

The book details how a new generation has grown up with street markets and more access to foreign media. How does it get in, and how does it impact viewers and listeners? How do they even watch movies with limited electricity? What are the punishments? Death? Can simply watching South Korean dramas inspire one to defect? (less)
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Jun 10, 2017Cynthia rated it it was amazing
Shelves: nonfiction
This excellent book tells what life is really like in North Korea and how the citizens are becoming aware of life outside their country through illicitly smuggled films, TV shows, and literature. They are becoming dissatisfied with the lies and almost unbelievable repression and brutality of the Kim regime through grandfather, father, and now, son. The book springs from the PhD dissertation of the author. She has interviewed many North Korean defectors and her research is thorough. The result is both anecdotal and informative. (less)
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Oct 24, 2017Liz rated it liked it
Shelves: fbc-17
Though it can be repetitive, this surprisingly heartfelt and hopeful little book contains a few good summaries of the history of the North Korean regime, Juche ideology, and the technology available to average North Koreans (to the extent we're able to figure that out from defectors and smugglers). Baek makes several endearing personal appearances as a Korean-American who struggles to understand North Koreans' national loyalty through the lens of her own Christian faith.
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Oct 05, 2019WRH rated it liked it
The title says it all: how the information underground is transforming North Korea. I am fascinated by North Korea. I read most books I can find on the subject. Most are by defectors who describe their life in DPRK and subsequent life as a free person in South Korea. This book focused on getting information into the DPRK and its impact on people who subsequently defected.
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Jan 31, 2020Charles rated it really liked it
I like the structure of this book, it goes through topics in a very methodical way, and brings in real life accounts to back up it's points.
There isn't a whole lot of new information that hasn't already been shared in other books on North Korea. However there were a few ideas/nuances that were new to me.
I'd recommend it to DPRK watchers.
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Mar 07, 2019Trish rated it really liked it
The author did a good job of covering an aspect of NK that most don't cover. The book does include defector stories (as most do), but goes a bit further than most NK books into how/why people don't just pick up and move.

The book reads a bit on the academic side, but still touches on human life without the inundation of the triumphant defector type story.
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Nov 12, 2019Sankalpita (bookGeeks India) rated it really liked it
Shelves: non-fiction, foreign-authors, politics, society-and-politics, south-east-asia
This book changed many perceptions about the current state of North Korea. I would recommend it to people who want to get a more subtle and less dramatic version of the infamous Hermit Kingdom.

Detailed review to follow soon.
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Jan 03, 2018William H. Boyd rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Critical Reading!

This is a critical read for anyone studying the Hermit Kingdom! Vital to understanding how information is flowing into the DPRK, how it's landing, and the affect it's having on the people and on the Kim regime.
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Dec 06, 2017Adam Christian rated it it was amazing
Chilling must read so as to understand why a military move probably isn’t what’s needed here.

Like I’ve always said, America’s best export is pop culture. Rock n roll, pop music, Levi’s, Corvettes, TV.

Get that in there and things change. I’d bet my life on it. (less)
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Jul 25, 2019Mtrevill rated it it was amazing
Shelves: read-all-things-korean
Interesting and informative. It was nice having a variety of defector’s stories told. NOT a good audio book though... (less)
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Nov 12, 2017Ariana rated it really liked it
Interesting and terrifying, considering our current president's antics.
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Feb 13, 2018Mark Nenadov rated it really liked it
Shelves: asia, north-korea, blackmarket
A fascinating look at the dissemination of media and underground markets of North Korea.
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May 18, 2019Allie Weiskopf rated it liked it
Shelves: global-issues
An interesting look at communication in North Korea, but “Nothing to Envy” is a more comprehensive look at life in the DPRK and also includes a study of illegal communication. (less)
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Dec 23, 2017Frank D Brewer rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Extremely interesting and informative

After reading this book, there is hope that the North Korean regime will collapse and give way to a government that takes care of its people.
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Apr 05, 2017Bartley Sharkey rated it liked it
Yes, this is a good eye opener for anyone curious about the North Korean regime although it read like a college dissertation, with quite a lot of fluff and little flair. It also comes across as a book that continually reinforces the view of the author that North Korea is to be pitied and looked down upon, when there is actually strong reason to believe that many citizens are quite satisfied and proud of the way they run their country. What's more, she skims over the issue of reunification and the potential push back from South Koreans. Family ties have grown weaker over the years to the extent that the South now has quite a strong tendency to look North with distain and little desire to entertain the idea of cooperating to help "liberate" them from their mistakes.

With those gripes off my chest, I actually think this was a fascinating read with some very worthwhile tales from North Korean defectors. While some stories were surely overblown by those telling them and others were simple repetitions, there were a number of intriguing accounts that indicated what it is like on a day-to-day basis in that secretive country. (less)
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May 31, 2017JohnNY rated it liked it
Shelves: north-korea
These books on North Korea are all alike just different person being interviewed, or different interpretation of a previous book. If you really want to read a book about the social, political , and how changed would happen and the results being positive and negatively on how the change would be on the citizens about the re- education etc.. and the great change on the average North Korean I would suggest reading 'The Real North Korea' Anton Chekov 3.5/5
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Amazon Review



S. Warfield
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
5.0 out of 5 stars An inkling of capitalism in North KoreaReviewed in the United States on April 3, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Jieun Baek's 2016 book,"North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground is Transforming a Closed Society", is an insightful look into North Korea today and how the people are slowly getting information about the outside world at the risk of harsh punishment. The author also interviews some North Koreans who have defected to South Korea and a few to the U.S. It is fairly easy to cross at certain times at narrow points of the Tumen River into China, but there are armed guards on both sides. Some of the guards can apparently be bribed to look the other way, though.

The Information Underground refers to the illegal radios that allow North Koreans to listen to broadcasts from South Korea and other parts of the world in addition to DVDs that are smuggled in from China into NK with South Korean movies and television shows that have enlightened many to the fact that they have been brainwashed and not allowed to know anything about the rest of the world. Young people like the fashions that they see on South Koreans in the movies and soap operas, but dare not be caught trying to emulate them.

A bit of capitalism has entered the country in the form of small markets where people sell food, clothing and other items. It is a way of making more money to buy food with and provides places for people to purchase food. During the famine in the 1990s, housewives would make anything they could, such as rice cakes or cookies, and sell them to make money to buy more food for their own families. These little home-grown markets have become bigger with more items for sale and the author tells about one woman who gets used clothes in bulk from China to sell.

Jieun makes an interesting observation that there are no experts on North Korea, and she considers herself a North Korea watcher. The country is so closed off from the rest of the world that it's impossible for an outsider to study it from the inside. The prison camps are still in operation and school children are taken to watch public executions. The Kim regime governs with fear.

This is quite a well-written book and allows the reader to learn about a changing society whether the regime knows it or not.

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PreventLegalPlunder
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2017
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Excellent! Although this book covers the depressing issues of the suffering in and the lack of human rights in "The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea" it was extremely informative. It also covers how their isolation is being torn down, and how markets and underground ties are forming among the people of North Korea. I had the audio version. It was great with the exception that a few Koren words mentioned were pronounced different from my previous exposure to them. I have previously spent about 5 years in S. Korea, and like to follow information from N. Korea. The information was up-to-date and actuate with the exception of Korean words I previously noted IMO.

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Pranay Reddy
5.0 out of 5 stars Liberation for the peopleReviewed in the United States on October 19, 2017
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
This is an incredibly important book is about outside "Western" information permeating North Korea's increasingly porous borders, but also a service to all that are interested in how it has come to be. The historical context begins with the prosperous and beloved former leader Kim Sung-Il. Its fate corresponds however with the fall of the Soviet Union, which thrusts North Korea into a period known as the "Long March", which is a positive spin for the word famine. With infrastructure crumbling to provide for its people, the poorest of North Koreans, largely relegated to the Northern Provinces had very little choice but to either defect and cross into China, or start businesses, usually trafficking in outside dvd's, books, bibles, movies, electronics etc at incredible risk. This has inadvertently proved an incredibly effective means of proliferating information. Of course, there are many motives at hand and at play which are all explored in vivid detail and first-hand accounts, the many types of people involved, from Chinese brokers, to student activists, to cultural programmers trying to give news and information to the North Korea people. Baek excels in storytelling, capturing the zeitgeist of activity surrounding the wishes, hopes, and dreams of peaceful transition, and liberation.

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John W. Gross
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for anyone curious about life in NKReviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
This book shows the dramatic role technology [CDs, DVDs, thumb drives] has played in altering North Korean society. The concept of what North Korean society was like and how it has changed in recent times can rest only on careful investigation of what North Korean defectors report themselves. This book is entirely based on first hand interviews of that kind. I believe reading this book provided me with a better idea of life in NK than even a visit as a tourist could provide, interesting though that would be. Travel will provide at best a heavily censored experience of what North Korean authorities want visitors to see. To get a real feel on what it is like to actually live there, this book is essential reading.

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Alan E. Negrin
4.0 out of 5 stars A View of How North Koreans Exist Under Their Repressive RegimeReviewed in the United States on April 28, 2017
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An interesting look at how people really function inside the tightly controlled society of North Korea. Drawn from interviews with defectors, the author concludes that there is an underground that has some vision of how life really is outside the regime, but cautions that most North Koreans aren't ready to come forth and confront the government, preferring to exercise their enjoyment of TV and movies clandestinely. The only book of its type I have seen and well worth reading.

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Kerndog
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recomend...a good read for those interested in NK and Asia in generalReviewed in the United States on October 18, 2017
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Really enjoyed this book. I had no idea that the information flow into NK was as much as the author reported. NK is such a closed society that experts have to sometimes make some broad generalizations about what could be going on among the populace and the author discloses that fact. Many of the defectors seem to come the northern provinces of NK that allow for easier access to China. Would be very interesting to know how the thought processes of masses deeper within NK. That would seem to be an impossible task to collect information from those areas. Highly recommend this book for those interested in this part of the world.

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Jamie
5.0 out of 5 stars Amongst the despair of North Korean society, a more inspiring story emergesReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 27, 2016
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Any book on North Korea is inevitably tragic. It is never easy to find comfort when learning about the living conditions of North Koreans.

Yet, Jieun Baek deserves immense credit with the prose of North Korea's Hidden Revolution containing an unwavering sense of optimism. While many books on North Korea focus on the government's abhorrent regime, the author goes beyond this by delving into what is at the core of human nature: the curiosity, bravery and independent thinking of North Koreans all take on central themes. Here, it is not just the outside efforts of states and NGOs that should give us hope, but the minds of North Koreans themselves. It is their courage and determination to learn about the wider world that should give us the greatest grounds for optimism. The country's borders are more porous than we realise. Outside influences in fashion, art, literature and media can and do reach North Koreans. As this process occurs, the transformative power of information shows that North Korean society is far more malleable that we might imagine.

With a closed government that is hostile to outsiders, gathering data on North Korea presents a number of challenges. Yet, the quality of the research is one of the most impressive aspects of the book with the anecdotes of North Korean defectors taking central stage. Through a series of meeting and interviews, it is their triumphs and tragedies that tell a moving story.

North Korea's Hidden Revolution shows that there are still opportunities to improve the prospects for societies living under despotic regimes. As the information underground continues to emerge, the future surely promises a more optimistic outlook.

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Basia
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2018
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The book provides a fascinating insight into the operation of the most autocratic regime and, in addition to being filled with interesting facts, reads very well and makes a convincing argument. Highly recommended.

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