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Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe

AUTHOR: Gavan McCormack
ISBN: 1560255579
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	21st Century History

Editorial Review

Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe
- Book Review, by Gavan McCormack

Book Description
North Korea seems impenetrable to outsiders, a bizarre, Stalinist sideshow and relic guerrilla state that defies explanation. For Washington, North Korea is a fully paid-up member of George Bush's "axis of evil," involved in a dangerous game of nuclear brinksmanship since last October. In this timely book, McCormack shows how decisive the founding myths and national identity forged through Korea's armed resistance to a brutal Japanese colonialism are, and how hardened North Korea has become over half a century of Cold War. He shows that at the heart of the Korean crisis is the role of Japan where the North Korean admission of having abducted Japanese citizens has created something of a right-wing, nationalist backlash in a country that itself once abducted thousands of Koreans and almost sixty years later has yet to fully apologize for its acts. A foreign policy satellite of the United States, Japan is now showing signs of becoming more militarily independent, wanting to reassert its old role as a regional hegemon. Permeated by so many ills, North Korea -paranoid, insecure, and ravaged by famine-is in a vice with few cards in its pack. The nuclear one has been its joker for at least a decade.

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Book Review

Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe
- Book Reviews, by Gavan McCormack

Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Paranoid and ravaged by famine, North Korea seems impenetrable to outsiders. George W. Bush, who has been involved in a nuclear stand-off with its leader, Kim Jong II, since October 2002, has described it as "the world's most dangerous regime." And with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, Kim Jong II is left a strong contender for the position of Public Enemy Number One.

But what kind of state is this bitterest enemy of the United States, and what has its leader done to be so hated? Is it sheer madness that makes Kim stand defiant before the U.S. and the world when the devastating consequences are plain? Target North Korea explores the origins and character of North Korea, its state and society, its history and present confrontation with the world. If North Korea seems peculiar to us, it's because the contradictions and problems of the twentieth century-from imperialism and colonialism to division, war, and nuclear weapons-were left to fester there untended into the twenty-first century. The intensity of North Korea's contemporary defiance reflects the bitterness of its historical experience, especially in its relationship with Japan.

Gavan McCormack argues that in reality North Korea does not harbor an aggressive or fanatical threat to the region or the world, and that its defiance masks an appeal to normalize and "come in from the cold." However, its sense of pride and justice are such that pressure alone is unlikely to lead to resolution. The more the North Koreans are pushed against the wall, the more likely that at some point the regime will feel the desperate urge to strike out. Thus, permeated by xenophobia and leader-worship, North Korea has few cards in its pack: The nuclear one has been its joker for at least a decade.

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