“A crisp, dramatic examination of how technology and human ingenuity are undermining North Korea’s secretive dictatorship.”—Kirkus Reviews One of the least understood countries in the world, North Korea has long been known for its repressive regime. Yet it is far from being an impenetrable black box. Media flows covertly into the country, and fault lines are appearing in the government’s sealed informational borders. Drawing on deeply personal interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, ranging from propaganda artists to diplomats, Jieun Baek tells the story of North Korea’s information underground—the network of citizens who take extraordinary risks by circulating illicit content such as foreign films, television shows, soap operas, books, and encyclopedias. By fostering an awareness of life outside North Korea and enhancing cultural knowledge, the materials these citizens disseminate are affecting the social and political consciousness of a people, as well as their everyday lives. “A fine primer on the country, based on extensive interviews with defectors.”—Times Literary Supplement “A fascinating book.”—The New York Times “[A] timely and cogent book.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “A fascinating and intelligent overview of the ways that information is liberating North Koreans’ minds.”—Robert S. Boynton, author of The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project “A fascinating, important, and vivid account of how unofficial information is increasingly seeping into the North and chipping away at the regime’s myths—and hence its control of North Korean society.”—Sue Mi Terry, former CIA analyst and senior research scholar at the Weatherhead East Asia Institute, Columbia University

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 North Korea’s history explains how the country has been able to remain such a durable regime. #2 The Korean Peninsula’s history starts in the Paleolithic era, with the legendary Gojoseon kingdom established in 2333 BCE. In 1905, Korea became a protectorate of Japan, and in 1910, the Japan-Korea Treaty marked the annexation of the Korean empire and the beginning of the brutal colonization of the Korean people. #3 Kim Il-Sung, the leader of North Korea, transformed the country into a socialist nation in the 1960s and 1970s. The country was able to outperform its southern counterpart during this period, and so was able to inspire citizens’ loyalty to Kim Il-Sung. #4 The three main principles of the North Korean ideology are political and ideological independence from other nations, military independence and sufficient national defense, and economic self-sufficiency.

For the first time since his two-year imprisonment in North Korea, Kenneth Bae recounts his dramatic ordeal in vivid detail. While leading a tour group into the most shrouded country on the planet, Bae is stopped by officials who immediately confiscate his belongings. With his computer hard drive in hand the officers begin their interrogation and Bae begins his unexpected decent into North Korean obscurity. Bae’s family and friends make immediate appeals to the United States government asking for his release. With his family waiting patiently for any news of Kenneth’s well-being, Bae is forced to rely solely on his faith for his survival. At his lowest point, Bae is confronted with the reality that he may not make it out alive. Not Forgotten is a riveting true story of one man’s fight for survival against impossible odds.

The terrifying new role of technology in a world at war

Recent years have seen the dramatic rise of a young woman called Kim Yo Jong in North Korea. Stomping the world stage from the shadows of her secretive state, she is creating headlines and fevered speculation about her role and her future. She is the sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and, as her murderous regime’s chief propagandist, internal administrator and foreign policymaker, she is the most powerful woman in North Korea’s history. Cruel but charming, she threatens and insults foreign leaders with sardonic wit. A princess by birth with great expectations for her macabre kingdom, she was brought up to believe it is her mission to reunite North Korea with the South, or die trying. She’s pretty, she seems demure, she is cold, and she’s incredibly dangerous. The Sister, written by Sung-Yoon Lee, a scholar of Korean and East Asian studies and a specialist on North Korea, is a fascinating, authoritative account of the mysterious world of North Korea and its ruling dynasty – a family whose lust for power entails torturing and starving its people into submission, killing dissenters, and threatening nuclear war.

This volume offers a timely and dynamic study of the rise of religion in American politics, examining the public messages of political leaders over the past seventy-five years. The authors show that U.S. politics today is defined by a calculated, deliberate, and partisan use of faith that is unprecedented in modern politics. Beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, America has seen a no-holds-barred religious politics that seeks to attract voters, identify and attack enemies, and solidify power. Domke and Coe identify a set of religious signals sent by both Republicans and Democrats in speeches, party platforms, proclamations, visits to audiences of faith, and even celebrations of Christmas. The updated edition of this ground-breaking book includes a new preface, an updated analysis of the last Bush administration, as well as a new final chapter on the Jeremiah Wright controversy, the candidacies of Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama's victory.

In this report, RAND researchers explore the factors, contexts, and mechanisms that shape a national government’s decision to continue or end military and other operations during a conflict (i.e., national will to fight). To help U.S. leaders better understand and influence will to fight, the researchers propose an exploratory model of 15 variables that can be tailored and applied to a wide set of conflict scenarios.