Paul French - North Korea: state of paranoia: a modern history

About the author

Born in London and educated there and in Glasgow, PAUL FRENCH has lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. A leading expert on North Korea, he is a widely published analyst and commentator on Asia and has written a number of books dealing with Chinas pre-1949 history and Asian politics and current affairs. His previous books include a history of North Korea, a biography of Shanghai ad man and adventurer Carl Crow, and a history of foreign correspondents in China. Paul was awarded the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime for his international best-seller Midnight in Peking.

North Korea

State of paranoia

PAUL FRENCH

Zed Books

LONDON | NEW YORK

North Korea: State of Paranoia was first published in 2014 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA

This ebook edition was first published in 2014

www.zedbooks.co.uk

Copyright Paul French 2014

The right of Paul French to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

Designed and typeset in Monotype Bembo Book by illuminati, Grosmont
Index by John Barker
Cover designed by www.roguefour.co.uk
Cover image Dermot Tatlow / Panos

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available

ISBN 978-1-78032-951-2

Contents

Acknowledgements

This book is the culmination of watching the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) for many years and writing about the country from a business perspective for my former company Access Asia and a variety of other publications. It has to be stated at the start that many people who fed ideas and experiences into this book cannot be mentioned by name. Such is the nature of the DPRK that securing entry visas and building relationships are hard enough without being associated with a book that will probably not be warmly greeted in Pyongyang. Those people know who they are and will I hope recognise their contributions. Naturally, any mistakes made with the information they provided or differences in interpretation are entirely the authors responsibility.

A number of people can be mentioned, though. Primary thanks must go to my two former colleagues at Access Asia: Matthew Crabbe (who provided the title) and Chris Torrens, both of whom share my interest in the DPRK and contributed to the debates around the changing nature of the country. Both were also gracious enough to indulge me patiently in pursuing this book. Thanks should also go to Barry Colman in Shanghai for his comments on the original proposal and encouragement.

Thanks must go to Joe Studwell and Arthur Kroeber of the China Economic Quarterly; Stephen Green, head of Greater China research at Standard Chartered; Professor David Wall of Cambridge Universitys School of International Relations; Andy Rothman, Chief China Strategist with CLSA; Hugh Peyman of Research-Works; and Tom Toback of Pyongyangsquare.com. Thanks also to Mark ONeill for comments on Sinuiju, and to Richard McGregor of the Financial Times for his thoughts on the DPRK.

Other thanks go to various Pyongyang and East Asia observers including Josh Green, Keith Bennett, John Swenson-Wright of Cambridge University and Aidan Foster-Carter.

Information on the DPRK is hard enough to dig up, though made easier by the helpful staff of the Shanghai Public Library, the British Library, the London Library, Hong Kong University Library, the RIIAs library, London School of Economics Library, the Russian State Library, Shanghais Fudan University Library, the Marx Memorial Library in London and the New York Public Library. I also acknowledge the work the Nautilus Institute does in supplying regular updates and thoughtful essays on the situation in the DPRK (www.nautilus.org), CanKor for its DPRK clippings service (www.cankor.ca) and Pyongyangsquare.com for its database of DPRK-related information (www.pyongyangsquare.com).

At Zed Books in London thanks must go to senior editor Robert Molteno, who first enthusiastically took up this project, Kim Walker for continuing it, Robin Gable and Lucy Morton for editing the book in various incarnations, and Jonathan Maunder for publicity and marketing.

Abbreviations, spellings and figures