Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios. Conceiving every movie made, he acted as producer and screenwriter. Despite this control, he was underwhelmed by the available talent and took drastic steps, ordering the kidnapping of Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi)—South Korea's most famous actress—and her ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, the country's most famous filmmaker.Madam Choi vanished first. When Shin went to Hong Kong to investigate, he was attacked and woke up wrapped in plastic sheeting aboard a ship bound for North Korea. Madam Choi lived in isolated luxury, allowed only to attend the Dear Leader's dinner parties. Shin, meanwhile, tried to escape, was sent to prison camp, and "re-educated." After four years he cracked, pledging loyalty. Reunited with Choi at the first party he attends, it is announced that the couple will remarry and act as the Dear Leader's film advisors. Together they made seven films, in the process gaining Kim Jong-Il's trust. While pretending to research a film in Vienna, they flee to the U.S. embassy and are swept to safety.A nonfiction thriller packed with tension, passion, and politics, author Paul Fischer's A Kim Jong-Il Production offers a rare glimpse into a secretive world, illuminating a fascinating chapter of North Korea's history that helps explain how it became the hermetically sealed, intensely stage-managed country it remains today.

North Korea has remained a thorn in the side of the United States ever since its creation in the aftermath of the Korean conflict of 1950 - 1953. Crafting a foreign policy that effectively deals with North Korea, while still ensuring stability and security on the Korean Peninsula - and in Northeast Asia as a whole - has proved very challenging for successive American administrations. In the wake of ruler Kim Jong-il's death in December 2011, analysts and policymakers continue to speculate about the effect his last years as leader will have on the future of North Korea. Bruce Bechtol, Jr. conte.

Kim Jong-il has been the subject of intense interest and fear in recent months. He has been demonised as 'Dr Evil' for his nuclear programme which puts Korea on a collision course with the US. For this reason, the world has a stake in understanding this man and his little-known country. This account aims to tell the compelling story of Kim Jong-il and the country he leads, exploring the pressing question of how he manages to hold onto power in a country that is ravaged by famine and poverty. Unravelling the myths, mysteries, and fallacies that surround this small, desperate country, this fascinating story includes rare photos of Kim Jong-il and his brutal regime.

No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Now, celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the "Incarnation of Love and Morality." Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, DEAR READER is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind the mythology. From his miraculous rainbow-filled birth during the fiery conflict of World War II, Kim Jong Il watched as his beloved Korea finally earned its freedom from the cursed Japanese. Mere years later, the wicked US imperialists took their chance at conquering the liberated nation—with devastating results. But that's only the beginning of the Dear Leader's story. In DEAR READER, Kim Jong Il explains: *How he can shrink time *Why he despises the Mona Lisa *How he recreated the arts in Korea *Why the Juche idea is the greatest concept ever discovered by man *How he handled the crippling famine *Why Kim Jong Un was chosen as successor over his elder brothers With nothing left uncovered, drawing straight from dozens of books, hundreds of articles and thousands of years of Korean history, DEAR READER is both the definitive account of Kim Jong Il's life and the complete stranger-than-fiction history of the world's most unique country.

An eye-opening look at North Korea, a brutal Stalinist country that has become one of the most volatile hot spots in the world.

The cult classic photobook celebrating the North Korean leader's infinite capacity for looking at things Comical and bizarre, Kim Jong Il Looking at Things has become a cult classic among photobook connoisseurs since its publication in 2015. The book was based upon one of the most followed, shared and imitated monothematic Tumblr blogs in recent years. Created by João Rocha, an art director at an advertising firm in Lisbon, the blog is a collection of photographs which depict the former "Dear Leader" of North Korea, often accompanied by military personnel or senior advisers, engaged in the act of looking at things. Since the blog's creation in October 2010, Rocha has posted photographs appropriated from the North Korean Central News Agency, which he matches with deadpan captions: "looking at cows"; "looking at blue rods"; "looking at pastry"; "looking at a metalworker"; "looking at a DVD labeling machine." Now available again after a long period of unavailability, this hilarious book includes an essay by visual culture writer Marco Bohr.

The 2018 summit meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un brought renewed international attention to North Korea and its leading dynasty. Ruled by three successive generations of the Kim family, North Korea is one of the most authoritarian states in the world. This collection of articles covers the history of their dynasty, including Kim Il-sung's assumption of power in the wake of World War II, the intense cult of personality surrounding him that followed, and the twice-over handoff of power from father to son, first to Kim Jong-il and later to Kim Jong-un. This in-depth coverage presents a tale of human rights abuses, famine, and nuclearization at the hands of three eccentric, unpredictable, and fiercely nationalistic dictators.