Paul French: North Korea the paranoid peninsula

North Korea remains one of the least understood nations on earth; a nuclear enabled “Hermit Kingdom” ravaged by economic mismanagement and reliant on illegal weapons sales, smuggling and counterfeiting for most of its foreign reserves while undergoing a prolonged famine and propped up by aid donations. Not a normal country in any sense of the word, its nuclear weapons program makes it a country whose actions could have global ramifications. This book demystifies North Korea through revealing the daily life of its citizens; the political and economic history of the nation; the reasoning behind the country’s combative way of engaging the world and the tentative economic reform process now being undertaken. The prospect of a nuclear North Korea preferring brinksmanship to engagement and negotiation, makes understanding Pyongyang’s guiding principles, motives and possible future increasingly important.