North Korea never ceases to amaze. The current unfolding succession saga from the second-generation leader, 69-year-old Chairman Jong-il Kim, to his 27-year-old third son, Jung-un Kim, puts the nation in an international spotlight. Despotic power successions among family members in modern times have had cases in contemporary political scene: most of them were toppled either by citizen discontent or by challenging rivals. The irreversible global trend of democratization and increasing respect for human rights seems to evade the world's one and only neo-Confucian socialist country. North Korea's uniqueness lies within its idiosyncratic capacity to normalize the peculiar. A combination of secrecy, peculiarity and its unbending persistence explains fetish voyeurism often expressed through awe-struck curiosity and value-laden judgments.
The latest release of two wonderful books adds very much to the North Korea scholarship. The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom by Hassig and Oh, veteran North...
