North Korea

In her characteristically direct approach, political analyst Loretta Napoleoni takes on the vexed story—and threat—of North Korea for those of us in the West who remain blinded by its myths and bigotry.

Like China’s Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung - North Korea’s leader from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1996 - washed away the humiliation caused by Japanese colonisation and re-created an ancient nation. He consolidated and protected the country with strict principles of unity and isolation. His grandson Kim Jong-un is following in the footsteps of Chinese revolutionary politics by modernising the country using the economy as the main tool of transformation.

This short, informative book is an account of a country central to world politics and yet little understood. Further, it presents insider narratives of its people, whose self-image is radically different to the image we have of them.