The New York Times Book Review - Jane Perlez
North Korea Confidential gives us a deeply informed close-up. Tudor…and Pearson…have pieced together their story from North Korean insiders, defectors, diplomats and traders, and from a careful reading of texts in English, Korean and Chinese. They focus on topics they can find out about: the changing lifestyles influenced, in part, by mobile phones; the thumb drives that have spread South Korean soaps to an appreciative audience; an economy that at the grass roots is somewhat privatized; the elite factions; and the gulag-like prison system…theirs is a surprising guide to how life is evolving inside the country.
Publishers Weekly - Audio
05/28/2018
Veteran voice actor Perkins’s straightforward narration leads listeners through this study of everyday experiences of the 24 million North Koreans living under the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un. The authors readily admit that reporting on North Korea is a challenge given the wall of secrecy, isolation, and fear that surrounds the country and its inhabitants; still, they manage to draw out a few tantalizing glimpses into everyday life—such as how the government dictates the hairstyles and clothing choices for its populace, with deviations from prescribed looks potentially resulting in prison time. Perkins delivers the information in a clear voice, but the book—which is more sociological study than nonfiction narrative—offers no individual story lines and little in the way of emotional weight. As a result, listeners are confronted with a steady stream of names, cities, dates, and other facts. Perkins works well with what he has, but the source material’s dryness is hard to overcome. A Tuttle hardcover. (Feb.)
Publishers Weekly
02/09/2015
Despite impressive credentials, Pearson and Tudor, respectively the Seoul correspondent at Reuters and the Economist’s former Korea correspondent, disappoint with this look inside a mystery-shrouded country. Their choice to focus on how the average North Korean lives, and how the strict government regulations play out in reality, sounds promising. But the authors assume that the lay reader will have more knowledge about the totalitarian regime and its ambitions than is likely, and, strangely, they do not open with an overview of the country’s national and international politics. Better editing would have helped; some footnotes, such as one on the former president of Sierra Leone, contain distractingly irrelevant trivia, while others contain crucial information, such as about North Korea’s nuclear program, or how government employees can pay a monthly fee to be excused from work and “engage in private business.” Given the heightened interest in the country after the controversy surrounding the movie The Interview, this book comes across as a missed opportunity to examine North Korea from a different perspective. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"North Korea Confidential gives us a deeply informed close-up…" — New York Times
"…[North Korea Confidential] uses extensive interviews with recent defectors and people still in the country to build a rich picture of daily life there." — Financial Times
"…[Tudor and Pearson] make judicious use of parallels between the divided Koreas. The book endows North Koreans with individuality and complexity, without shying from the brutal or bizarre elements of North Korea." — Global Asia
"If you are a North Korea watcher or simply curious about the country, it's definitely worth a read. Because what is really happening inside the country rarely makes the headlines." — Korea Herald
"Tudor and Pearson do a commendable job of looking beyond the North's nuclear stockpile and recent red herrings such as the basketball diplomacy circus to look at life and society in North Korea, which is certainly not as monolithic as often portrayed." — Japan Times
"By putting North Korea in its proper cultural, regional, and historical context, North Korea Confidential provides a vivid, concise, and useful account of a country that has generated much heated commentary but much less accurate reporting." — Los Angeles Review of Books
"The authors, both journalists in the region, do their best to beat the stereotypes that have been scraped together over the years…" — Washington Post
"One of the most informative and contemporary books to be released on North Korea…" — Asia Society
Library Journal
★ 04/15/2015
Rather than describing a gray, economically stagnant, and totalitarian society dominated by dictator Kim Jong Un, veteran journalists and coauthors Tudor and Pearson paint a vivid portrait of how North Korea functions by opportunistic entrepreneurism abetted by bribery. After the North Korean economy and government failed in the 1990s, most of the population, from ordinary citizens to upper-level bureaucrats, survived by hustling—buying, selling, and stealing from the government—beneath the illusion of dictatorial control. To own many consumer products all one needs is foreign currency, such as the Chinese yuan. Bribes will solve most problems, except political challenges to the Kim regime. That, the authors recognize, is extremely dangerous and results in incarceration in the very large and very brutal North Korean penal system. Opportunity and self-reliance characterize the North Korea that Tudor and Pearson portray, an economy and society functioning unofficially beneath the façade of Kim Jong Un's protection racket. Having survived the 1990s collapse, the fall of the Soviet Union, and by adapting to this unauthorized and thriving economy, the North Korean regime has shown a remarkable ability to survive, and the authors expect it will continue to be resilient. VERDICT Documented through extensive travel in the country and interviews with North Korean defectors, this important book will appeal to anyone interested in Korean and East Asian affairs.—Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati
