I read a review of this book online which was titled, North Korea - A Nation Of Racist Midgets. That was the review, not the book. I'm having a hard time putting it down.
Our seminar was very brief in regards to Korea, even less so with the North. It seems ignorance is common in this region, and the North Koreans like it that way. B.R. Meyers tells the story of how the North Koreans see themselves, and how the geopolitical players have completely missed the real meaning of this proto-fascist and pathetically poor nanny-state. This is what westerners don't read. The English language apparatus tells one story and it is digested around the world as if it is the policy out of Pyongyang. The government tells its citizens something comically different!
1. All the aid given is tribute to Dear Leader
2. Clinton/Carter came to grovel
3. We have no nukes (to the west), we have a deterrent (home). etc....
So far, the book is a fast-read tragedy that begins with the North Korean Worldview: The Korean people are too pure-blooded, and therefore too virtuous, to survive in this evil world without a great parental leader.
Meyers maintains that North Korea is not Communist, Confucian, or Fascist. So, pursuing Cold War solutions to its nuclear problem is bound to fail. About the midget part: the average northerner is 6 inches shorter than his southern neighbor.
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