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The Impossible State

North Korea, Past and Future

Victor Cha

$36.99

Paperback

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English
Vintage
15 August 2013
In The Impossible State, seasoned international-policy expert and lauded scholar Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on provocative, isolationist North Korea, providing our best look yet at its history and the rise of the Kim family dynasty and the obsessive personality cult that empowers them. Cha illuminates the repressive regime's complex economy and culture, its appalling record of human rights abuses, and its belligerent relationship with the United States, and analyses the regime's major security issues--from the seemingly endless war with its southern neighbour to its frightening nuclear ambitions--all in light of the destabilising effects of Kim Jong-il's death and the transition of power to his unpredictable heir.

Ultimately, this engagingly written, authoritative, and highly accessible history warns of a regime that might be closer to its end than many might think--a political collapse for which America and its allies may be woefully unprepared.
By:  
Imprint:   Vintage
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 32mm
Weight:   384g
ISBN:   9780099578659
ISBN 10:   0099578654
Pages:   544
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  ELT Advanced ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Victor Cha is the former Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. He was the U.S. Deputy Head of Delegation for the Six Party Talks, concerned with security risks posed by the North Korean weapons programme. During his role as adviser to the White House he spent time in Pyongyang, and is in a unique position to comment on North Korean affairs. He is currently Professor of Government and Asian Studies and Director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University.

Reviews for The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future

Engrossing... It offers perhaps the best recent one-volume account of North Korea's history, economics and foreign relations The Economist [This] excellent, comprehensive book explains as much as it is possible to explain the nature of this 'impossible state', how it has developed under the Kim dynasty and why it endures as a major thorn in the side of the global community -- Jonathan Fenby The Times This scrupulously researched account provides an alarming insight into how a long-running nightmare for North Koreans could soon become a geopolitical crisis for the rest of us -- Stephen Robinson Sunday Times He uses his first-hand and often surreal experiences of dealing with North Korean officialdom to telling effect in the book. But Cha is also a scholar of Korean and Asian affairs, so can take a historical view of the North Korean problem and set it in its wider international context. [An] impressive analysis -- Richard Cockett Literary Review Provocative, frightening, and never more relevant than today as an untested new leader takes charge of the world's most unpredictable nuclear power -- Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent


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