How do scholars examine a country whose borders have been largely closed since its inception? This is a conundrum that persists for observers of North Korea. It is also one that academicians in Soviet studies once faced. The latter attempted to approach this challenge from the outside—that is, through sources that were found or generated outside the federation’s borders. Defector and émigré accounts, captured documents, records of international exchange with foreign nations and their citizens, and a plethora of published materials and artwork, all backed by Cold War money, helped build the field of Sovietology and furnished scholars with material to try to pull back the “iron curtain.” Does the same framework of the “outside” work for scholars in the field of North Korean studies? The editors of Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands believe so.
Decoding is a collection of essays that explores North Korea through people, politics, and trade...
