"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim II-Sun and Kim Jong-II. Lifting North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take readers inside a society that, to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from birth to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of megalomaniacs. Revised and expanded for the paperback edition, this fascinating, definitive history brings the reader right up the present day tensions. For as this book direly predicted, North Korea has a legitimate nuclear programme and appears to be the greatest threat to the world today.
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""Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" is, from all I have read, simply the best book ever written about North Korea. Relying largely on extensive interviews with defectors, Martin portrays North Korean life with a clarity that is stunning, and he captures the paradoxes in North Korean public opinion."--Nicholas D. Kristof, "The New York Review of Books"
"Martin's massive book provides as useful a set of insights into life in North Korea as can be found anywhere."
- "L.A. Times Review"
"As an AP correspondent covering South Korea in the 1970s, I learned quickly how difficult it was to discover any reliable information about that secretive, threatening regime to the north. Brad Martin's book is testimony to the thoroughness of his work, and the high level of his ability as a journalist and researcher.
" North Korea is one of the least known, least understood countries in the world. Its leaders have always been enigmas, both frightening and fascinating, but almost impossible to decipher. Again today, it becomes vitally important that we do both, yet there is almost nothing of importance being written about the subject. "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" is important, as well as fascinating. The research is impeccable, the writing excellent. This is a major and timely contribution, and essential to anyone who hopes to deal sensibly with a vital region of the world."
-Terry Anderson, former AP correspondent and author of "Den of Lions"
"Brad Martin's "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader," a careful, penetrating analysis of North Korea, is more than just a book. Given the levels of secrecy which surround the Pyongyang regime and the danger it poses to its neighbors, Martin has rendered a considerable service to us all."
-bestselling author, David Halbertstam
"Brad Martin's book on North Korea is at once enlightening and frightening. It is lucid in writing, balanced in analysis, and comprehensive in"
"Martin's massive book provides as useful a set of insights into life in North Korea as can be found anywhere."
- "L.A. Times Review"
"As an AP correspondent covering South Korea in the 1970s, I learned quickly how difficult it was to discover any reliable information about that secretive, threatening regime to the north. Brad Martin's book is testimony to the thoroughness of his work, and the high level of his ability as a journalist and researcher.
" North Korea is one of the least known, least understood countries in the world. Its leaders have always been enigmas, both frightening and fascinating, but almost impossible to decipher. Again today, it becomes vitally important that we do both, yet there is almost nothing of importance being written about the subject. "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" is important, as well as fascinating. The research is impeccable, the writing excellent. This is a major and timely contribution, and essential to anyone who hopes to deal sensibly with a vital region of the world."
-Terry Anderson, former AP correspondent and author of "Den of Lions"
"Brad Martin's "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader," a careful, penetrating analysis of North Korea, is more than just a book. Given the levels of secrecy which surround the Pyongyang regime and the danger it poses to its neighbors, Martin has rendered a considerable service to us all."
-bestselling author, David Halbertstam
"Brad Martin's book on North Korea is at once enlightening and frightening. It is lucid in writing, balanced in analysis, and comprehensive in"
About the Author
Bradley K. Martin has covered North Korea for The Asian Wall Street Journal and Newsweek.
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First Sentence
Reading about the personality cult of the North Korean leader had not fully prepared me for what I found when I arrived in Pyongyang in April 1979, as a member of the first large contingent of Americans to visit since the Korean War. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Reading about the personality cult of the North Korean leader had not fully prepared me for what I found when I arrived in Pyongyang in April 1979, as a member of the first large contingent of Americans to visit since the Korean War. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This ambitious book gives an excellent overview of North Korea. Thorough insights into the country's history, political system and society are inextricably linked with the personal histories of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
Although I've keenly followed North Korea-related news items since a brief trip there as a tourist in 1997, this book has given me a far more in-depth, and at times horrifying, look at the most fascinating and bizarre country I've ever visited.
On a personal note, one thing I found particularly shocking was to learn of the severity of the food shortages at the time I visited and the criminal disparity in how food was rationed in those years. I was aware of the shortages before my trip but not their extent or how the government was 'dealing' with the crisis. Perhaps not surprisingly, our party was exceptionally well fed during our stay. It's sickening to think this had to have been at the expense of people starving elsewhere.
As for the book, my only gripe is that in places it gets bogged down with dozens of transcripts of interviews with defectors. Much of their testimony was very similar and would have been better served in summary with a few specific examples thrown in for colour.
That doesn't negate the importance of the book to anyone wishing to read a well-rounded and balanced introduction to the good, the bad and the ugly of North Korea. Highly recommended.
Although I've keenly followed North Korea-related news items since a brief trip there as a tourist in 1997, this book has given me a far more in-depth, and at times horrifying, look at the most fascinating and bizarre country I've ever visited.
On a personal note, one thing I found particularly shocking was to learn of the severity of the food shortages at the time I visited and the criminal disparity in how food was rationed in those years. I was aware of the shortages before my trip but not their extent or how the government was 'dealing' with the crisis. Perhaps not surprisingly, our party was exceptionally well fed during our stay. It's sickening to think this had to have been at the expense of people starving elsewhere.
As for the book, my only gripe is that in places it gets bogged down with dozens of transcripts of interviews with defectors. Much of their testimony was very similar and would have been better served in summary with a few specific examples thrown in for colour.
That doesn't negate the importance of the book to anyone wishing to read a well-rounded and balanced introduction to the good, the bad and the ugly of North Korea. Highly recommended.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bradley K. Martin's (BM) book is an excellent and rather detailed report on how North Korea works.
In his preface, the author reminds us of H.G. Wells' Time Machine and there especially the part where mankind has split into the Eloi and the Morlocks and how they control the Eloi. In Wells' book this process takes about 800,000 years. In North Korea this process was reduced to just over 50 years. The rest of the book explains how this transformation came about.
BM starts off with the biography of Kim Il-sung and there draws quite a bit on the dictator's own publications. He follows this up with the Korean War and Kim Il-sung's elimination of all rivals and establishment of a totalitarian state. He then goes through all the aspects of Korean society and economy. He also goes through the different classes in society, namely, those connected to the top leadership, those who are not and those who have an unclean spot in their past. One does get the impression that every other person fits into that latter category at least once during their lifetime.
There is also a fair bit on Kim Jong-il and his unpopularity. The author shows that it was Kim Il-sung who messed up the economy. Kim Jong-il is blamed for it because he surfaced officially around the time things started to go wrong. However, there is no need to shed any tears, Kim Jong-il is quite a screwy character in his own right. You can read that right through the whole book.
BM gathers all this information through his own trips to the country and through interviews with defectors. Using such information can be a touchy business, but I don't think the author is at risk here because of the large number of people he must have interviewed for this book (one notices that throughout the book).... Read more ›
In his preface, the author reminds us of H.G. Wells' Time Machine and there especially the part where mankind has split into the Eloi and the Morlocks and how they control the Eloi. In Wells' book this process takes about 800,000 years. In North Korea this process was reduced to just over 50 years. The rest of the book explains how this transformation came about.
BM starts off with the biography of Kim Il-sung and there draws quite a bit on the dictator's own publications. He follows this up with the Korean War and Kim Il-sung's elimination of all rivals and establishment of a totalitarian state. He then goes through all the aspects of Korean society and economy. He also goes through the different classes in society, namely, those connected to the top leadership, those who are not and those who have an unclean spot in their past. One does get the impression that every other person fits into that latter category at least once during their lifetime.
There is also a fair bit on Kim Jong-il and his unpopularity. The author shows that it was Kim Il-sung who messed up the economy. Kim Jong-il is blamed for it because he surfaced officially around the time things started to go wrong. However, there is no need to shed any tears, Kim Jong-il is quite a screwy character in his own right. You can read that right through the whole book.
BM gathers all this information through his own trips to the country and through interviews with defectors. Using such information can be a touchy business, but I don't think the author is at risk here because of the large number of people he must have interviewed for this book (one notices that throughout the book).... Read more ›
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A very well researched work detailing the ascent to power of Kim Il Sung and the transfer of power to his son Kin Jong Il thus creating this bizarre Communist Monarchy. The book includes interviews with numerous defectors, describes the appalling living standard of North Koreans, and the cruel prison camps. A very interesting read, money well spent.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Andrew Hume
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
I had the good fortune, if that's the phrase, to visit North Korea a couple of months ago. This book was an essential primer for that visit.
North Korea is, I assure you, stranger than you can imagine - a genuine hermit state where people are almost completely cut off from not only the outside world but also modernity itself - no email, no internet, and mobile phones restricted to a small section of the population (and unable to call abroad). Being there, even for only a few days, was a weird mash-up of 1970s and 19th century.
What the casual tourist does not see, of course, is the scale of the repression and horror visited on these luckless people by the Kim dynasty. Bradley Martin's book lays all this bare in sometimes distressing detail. The history of the DPRK before and after the Korean war is covered lucidly and in depth, and its slow decline into the strange Stalinist theme park of today catalogued in full. There's plenty of fascinating trivia for the curious, not least an extended look at the Kims' predilections for the company of young ladies pressganged into the service of their masters... though I must say that Martin's assertion that the passengers on the Pyongyang Metro are actors, paid to give foreigners the impression of a busy transit system, did not square with what I saw on my short ride through the subway.
The book pulls off that difficult trick of being definitive and detailed (with enough footnotes for a lifetime of study for the truly obsessive) without ever being boring or inaccessible. I recommend it heartily, and not just if you're planning a summer holiday in Pyongyang...
North Korea is, I assure you, stranger than you can imagine - a genuine hermit state where people are almost completely cut off from not only the outside world but also modernity itself - no email, no internet, and mobile phones restricted to a small section of the population (and unable to call abroad). Being there, even for only a few days, was a weird mash-up of 1970s and 19th century.
What the casual tourist does not see, of course, is the scale of the repression and horror visited on these luckless people by the Kim dynasty. Bradley Martin's book lays all this bare in sometimes distressing detail. The history of the DPRK before and after the Korean war is covered lucidly and in depth, and its slow decline into the strange Stalinist theme park of today catalogued in full. There's plenty of fascinating trivia for the curious, not least an extended look at the Kims' predilections for the company of young ladies pressganged into the service of their masters... though I must say that Martin's assertion that the passengers on the Pyongyang Metro are actors, paid to give foreigners the impression of a busy transit system, did not square with what I saw on my short ride through the subway.
The book pulls off that difficult trick of being definitive and detailed (with enough footnotes for a lifetime of study for the truly obsessive) without ever being boring or inaccessible. I recommend it heartily, and not just if you're planning a summer holiday in Pyongyang...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb: A must- book
This is a great review of North Korean culture, society, history and politics. The book offers a comprehensive account of the reality in the country and one of its biggest... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Nikolay
5.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating, the best book i have read on the subject
an incredible read, highly recommneded for anyone interested in this tradgic country and the plight of its people. Read more
Published 4 months ago by dannyboy
4.0 out of 5 stars
A complex place deserves a detailed book like this
Although it can be a bit long and over-detailed in places this book gives a good overview of a challenging and severe country, its leaders and systems. Read more
Published 9 months ago by MR IAIN C BOULTON
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kim dynasty
What a great book, so much information but an easy read...an excellent book if you are interested in the strange country known as the DPRK.
Published 10 months ago by B. R. Goodlad
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seminal work on North Korea
Having read, researched and written widely about North Korea, I can honestly say that there is no better introduction to the history and politics of North Korea than this book. Read more
Published 20 months ago by A.N.Other
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
I wanted to read a book that gave a comprehensive history of post war North Korea prior to a visit I made last year. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2011 by S. A. Richmond
5.0 out of 5 stars
The definitive work on the Kim regime
This is a very long and very in-depth review of the Kim dynasty of North Korea. However if it is excellent and if you want to understand North Korea you have to read this book.
Published on 17 Jan 2011 by Dysonsphere
5.0 out of 5 stars
Probably one of the most comprehensive books on North Korea
I have recently read a lot of books on North Korea.
This book has a comprehensive view on the country. Read more
This book has a comprehensive view on the country. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2010 by Naomi Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent insight into a hermit kingdom
If you're interested in the DPRK then this book is for you it does have one downside and that is that it is slightly dated as the authors optimism for the sunshine policy and... Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2010 by N. Montgomery
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