North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society by Klaus Heinz Losse | eBook

Andrei Lankov

“In the last two decades, North Korea has gone through dramatic changes, largely because the old system of self-isolation began to crumble. In vivid detail, Jieun Baek’s book shows this hidden transformation and how it changed the lives of North Koreans. A truly interesting read for all people interested in North Korea.”—Andrei Lankov, author of The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia

Graham Allison

"For those befuddled by the Hermit Kingdom's antics and frustrated by our apparent impotence in addressing its challenge, Jieun Baek's North Korea’s Hidden Revolution provides a powerful beacon of light.” —Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kenendy School

Robert S. Boynton

"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

Sue Mi Terry

"Drawing on deeply personal and thoughtful interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, Jieun Baek's North Korea's Hidden Revolution sheds invaluable light on North Korea's information underground. It is 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

Wael Ghonim

"North Korea's Hidden Revolution humanizes a dark part of our world, gives agency and voice to North Koreans, and underscores the power of information in a uniquely closed society. A must-read."--Wael Ghonim, Egyptian human rights activist

Charles K. Armstrong

"Our usual image of North Korea is of an isolated society cut off from the outside world and trapped in another time. But Jieun Baek shows that this is far from the case. Through detailed observation, exhaustive research, and extensive interviews with defectors, she reveals a society undergoing tremendous change and becoming connected to the world as never before. Despite the best efforts of the regime to control information flows into and out of North Korea, the country is undergoing an "information revolution" with far-reaching and unpredictable effects." --Charles K. Armstrong, Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences, Columbia University

Robert Gallucci

"This insightful, well-written and disturbing book adds depth and texture to what we think life inside North Korea must be like."--Ambassador Robert Gallucci

The Los Angeles Review of Books - Stephen J. Gallas

“[A] timely and cogent book.”—Stephen J. Gallas, The Los Angeles Review of Books

TLS - Min Jin Lee

“A fine primer on the country, based on extensive interviews with defectors."—Min Jin Lee, TLS

Michael Kirby

‘’This excellent book shines a light on the lives and feelings of ordinary citizens of North Korea. It lifts a veil that is imposed by the isolation and controls of the current regime. It reveals people thirsting for access to information and motivated by unquenchable human curiosity and rationality. These are great allies for liberty. At such a worrying time for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, these human qualities afford us a measure of reassurance and encouragement."--The Honourable Michael Kirby, former chair of the United Nations commission of inquiry on human rights violations in North Korea and Justice of the High Court of Australia

From the Publisher

"A fine primer on the country, based on extensive interviews with defectors."—Min Jin Lee, Times Literary Supplement

“A fascinating book.”—Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

"[A] timely and cogent book."—Stephen J. Gallas, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Well written and readable, the book will be of interest mostly to academic specialists and graduate students."—A. Magid, Choice

"In the last two decades, North Korea has gone through dramatic changes, largely because the old system of self-isolation began to crumble. In vivid detail, Jieun Baek’s book shows this hidden transformation and how it changed the lives of North Koreans. A truly interesting read for all people interested in North Korea."—Andrei Lankov, author of The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia

"For those befuddled by the Hermit Kingdom's antics and frustrated by our apparent impotence in addressing its challenge, Jieun Baek's North Korea’s Hidden Revolution provides a powerful beacon of light."—Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kenendy School

"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

"Drawing on deeply personal and thoughtful interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, Jieun Baek's North Korea's Hidden Revolution sheds invaluable light on North Korea's information underground. It is 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

"North Korea's Hidden Revolution humanizes a dark part of our world, gives agency and voice to North Koreans, and underscores the power of information in a uniquely closed society. A must-read."—Wael Ghonim, Egyptian human rights activist

Library Journal

★ 10/15/2016
Although North Korea is perhaps the most cloistered country on Earth, foreign media manages to infiltrate via radio broadcasts, balloon drops, and smuggling across the Chinese border. Through numerous interviews with North Korean defectors, Baek (fellow, Belfer Ctr. for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Univ.) examines how information from outside the country gets in and impacts the population. This book reveals a network of defectors, smugglers, and bribable border guards who traffic in DVDs, USB drives, and more. The content is typically not political, but rather popular movies and TV shows from South Korea and elsewhere. If caught, viewers face severe punishment. Despite the risks, natural curiosity and the desire for quality entertainment lead many to seek out foreign media. Consuming this information leads to gradual distrust of the government and compels some to leave the country. However, the author encourages readers to have realistic expectations. Viewing one foreign movie does not erase a lifetime of propaganda; therefore, those who work to get foreign information into North Korea should have long-term objectives. VERDICT An engrossing work that is essential for all North Korea watchers.—Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX

Kirkus Reviews

2016-10-05
A crisp, dramatic examination of how technology and human ingenuity are undermining North Korea’s secretive dictatorship.Baek, a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, synthesizes diverse research, including her own monitored visits and interviews within the hidden diaspora of successful defectors, to produce a comprehensible academic study attuned to the human toll of North Korea’s oppressive regime. Despite the authorities’ determination to punish any rebellion, the author argues, “over the past two decades there have been cracks in the state’s control over the dissemination of information among citizens.” A horrific famine in the 1990s necessitated tolerance for informal markets, which later established smuggling routes for new technologies like USB drives and smartphones. This both fed and was amplified by the stream of defections to China and South Korea, which continued in spite of the cruelties the regime directed toward defectors’ families. Baek looks at the challenges faced by those who flee: “When defectors cross into China, their minds are opened and their worlds change.” Her interviews with such individuals buttress her thesis that the new wave of information sharing serves as inspiration, despite the state’s intrusive surveillance. She documents smuggling methodologies and the material that North Koreans desire, ranging from South Korean pop music and films to religious texts and Voice of America–style news broadcasts as well as Japanese DVD players and inexpensive radios, all available on the black market. Since North Korean society has a strict caste system, Baek argues that this amplifies the forbidden desires among less favored citizens to question the government and ultimately pursue a better life, despite the strong tendency to conform within an authoritarian state. Baek’s writing is clear and patiently structured, which makes her interviewees’ accounts of brutal treatment and the inner revelations caused by smuggled media seem more urgently affecting. An original, authentic take on the fissures developing behind North Korea’s totalitarian facade.

North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society

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