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DPRK

General

This page will be brief. I’m not going to express any views on North Korea. But for an antidote to the Axis of Evil rhetoric, read the relevant chapter of Bruce Cumings’s Korea’s Place in the Sun. There’s plenty of literature on the North, and on North-South relations, and some of these are noted in my book pages.

For Books on the DPRK, try North Korea Books, as a source for over 300 English language books published by the North Koreans themselves. They’ll also soon be listing some North Korean films. There’s also a source of books and films on ebay’s French site: North Korea Imports.

The DPRK’s UK embassy has recently started publishing e-bulletins which set out the official line on topical matters. As & when I get these, I’ll post them, unedited and generally without comment, in my blog section here.

The UK’s expert on the North is Aidan Foster-Carter - have a browse of his website, which also has some very useful links: http://www.aidanfc.net/

CanKor (http://www.cankor.ligi.ubc.ca/) is a weekly e-clipping service devoted to news and analyses of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Other sites containing DPRK information include:

Plus there’s the Federation of American Scientists who’ve prepared some data on DPRK and WMDs, though the page seems to be a little dated; and the CIA’s page on North Korea.

And the World Travel Directory has some useful data for visitors.

Thanks to AidanFC for supplying some of these links.

North Korea in Film

I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but the funniest film of 2004 was Team America — World Police, in which the villain is Kim Jong-il masterminding a global network of terrorists. Tasteless stuff, from which no-one survives unscathed, least of all America. The Kim puppet from this film made a brief appearance on the imdb site, masquerading as a real photo of Kim in his capacity as producer of the 1985 monster parable Pulgasari. I’d be fascinated to know what, other than a sense of responsibility, made the imdb webmaster take the image down again. I’d also be interested to know what Koreans in general thought about the film, given that the Bond movie (Die Another Day) involving North Korean villains was very unpopular. I’m assuming not very much.

North Korea is seen in a much friendlier light in the documentaries by UK director Daniel Gordon. A State of Mind (2004), on the mass gymnastics and Game of their lives (2002), on the North Korean 1966 soccer world cup success are both worth seeking out. A third documentary, Crossing the Line, on US defectors to the DPRK, was released in 2007.

Art from North Korea

http://www.pyongyangartstudio.com/

Travelling to North Korea

The experts are Koryo Tours, based in Beijing: http://www.koryogroup.com/index.html. They sorted out the travel for Daniel Gordon in his film projects. Bales Worldwide also provide a North Korean itinerary, as do Regent Holidays.

Here’s a good travelogue, with lots of pictures: http://www.geocities.com/dprk02/intro.htm