Understanding Kim Jong-un's North Korea

Robert Carlin is consultant at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.Chung-in Moon is chairman of the Sejong Institute in Seoul, Korea.

• Introduction by Robert Carlin and Chung-in MoonChapter 1: To What Extent and How Do We Know About North Korea? Linking Contextual Intelligence to Sound Policy by Robert CarlinChapter 2: Can the Kim Jong-un Regime Survive? by Jong Seok LeeChapter 3: The North Korean Economy in Crisis: Prospects for Reform and Policy Options by Rüdiger FrankChapter 4: Kim Jong-un's Economic Reform and Opening: Opportunities, Constraints, and Prospects by Dongho JoChapter 5: North Korean Society at a Crossroad: Change and Continuity in the Kim Jong-un era by Sung Kyung KimChapter 6: North Korea’s Foreign Policy: A Revisionist State, An Alliance with China, or A Third Way? by Jung-Chul LeeChapter 7: The Status and Role of the North Korean Military During the Kim Jong-un Period by Gee-Dong LeeChapter 8: Nuclear North Korea: A Path Forward in View of Facts, Myths and Uncertainties by Siegfried S. HeckerChapter 9: International Sanctions on North Korea: Are They Working? by Thomas J. Biersteker and Zuzana Hudáková

Carlin and Moon are among the most perceptive observers of North Korea, in no small measure because they have actual histories with the country’s officials and are appropriately modest about what we can know. This volume gathers together an unusual cluster of leading experts, but does not confine itself to standard foreign policy analysis; it considers cultural change, the economy and ongoing humanitarian challenges, including those around COVID. Nonetheless, a particular bonus is a roundtable discussion among leading negotiators from both the US and South Korea. If you have an interest in North Korea, this book needs to be in your library.