The Hermit King

Starred review from September 23, 2019
Korea analyst Chung Min Lee (Fault Lines in a Rising Asia) delivers a crisp examination of the rise and reign of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. According to Lee, the “ruthless and smart” Kim wants to do the impossible: Modernize North Korea’s economy without sacrificing his supremacy or the nation’s growing nuclear arsenal. Lee’s insightful précis of the Kim clan’s violent history reveals the extent to which the family has relied on executions, forced labor, and torture as tools of political oppression, and his breakdown of the current power structure is vital to any genuine understanding of the regime. Even as Kim scores prestige points domestically and internationally for his summit meetings with President Trump, Lee writes, the infallibility of the Kim dynasty has largely vanished from the hearts and minds of North Korea’s elites, who have learned to fend for themselves in the country’s informal jangmadang, or free market, system. Gaming out scenarios for the collapse or survival of the regime, Lee cogently assesses the political and military interests of the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan. Though he sees President Trump’s overtures to Kim as doing more harm than good, Lee believes that “freedom and democracy” are “the weapons of mass destruction Kim Jong Un fears most.” This is an excellent summation of one of the world’s most complex geopolitical flash points.

October 15, 2019
Of all the autocratic, corrupt regimes in the world, none approaches the extreme cruelty perpetrated by North Korea's Kim dynasty. Combining the worst of Hitler's Third Reich, Stalinist Russia, and Tudor England, North Korean leaders have imprisoned generations in lethal gulags; routinely executed dissidents, scapegoats, and family members; established an extensive police state; and cavalierly allowed millions of citizens to starve. While many hoped that the Western-educated Kim Jong Un would institute economic and political reforms in exchange for reduced international sanctions, Lee sees the newest "Dear Leader" as continuing on the same tragic path as his father and grandfather. Despite illusory overtures to South Korea and the U.S., Lee insists on this incontrovertible fact: his power derives from an intimidating nuclear weapons arsenal and his iron control over the Korean military and elite; he cannot afford to give up either. While he may pose for photo ops with President Trump and South Korean president Moon Jae-In and make vague promises about unifying the Korean peninsula, self-preservation is his primary goal. A chilling portrait of a little understood, often underestimated leader.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)