North Korea in a Nutshell: A Contemporary Overview

This comprehensive yet compact book provides a concise introduction to North Korea. Two leading experts, Kongdan Oh and Ralph Hassig, trace the country's history from its founding in 1948 and describe the many facets of its political, economic, social, and cultural life. The authors illuminate a hidden nation dominated by three generations of the secretive Kim regime, a family dynasty more suited to the Middle Ages than the contemporary era.

Despite Kim Jong-un's despotic control, the authors argue that North Korea cannot continue on its current path indefinitely. Kim treats even his closest associates harshly, and the gap is widening between his elite supporters, numbering a million or so, and the other twenty-four million North Koreans. The economic and technological gap between South Korea and North Korea is increasing as well, and younger people are becoming more disenchanted as they gradually learn more about the outside world. Looking to the future, Dr. Oh explore what lies ahead for this secretive realm.

Dr. Kongdan (Katy) Oh was formerly a senior Asia specialist at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation. She has taught courses at the University of California at San Diego, George Washington University, and the University of Maryland University College in Asia. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors of the United States Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, and the Board of Directors of the Korea Economic Institute of America, and she is the co-founder and former co-director of The Korea Club of Washington, D.C.