title: The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia
author:  Andrei Lankov 
description: <br />"[A] probing, clear-eyed study of the world's most irascible dictatorship. Lankov's is one of the best and most accessible recent accounts of this seemingly outlandish nation, and the book eschews North Korea's lurid stereotypes to reveal a stunted normalcy." <br />-<em>Publishers Weekly</em> (Starred Review) <br />
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Real North Korea
  
  
  # **The Real North Korea**
  
  
  **_Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia_**
  
  
  **ANDREI LANKOV**
  
  
  
  
  
  ## **CONTENTS**
  
  
  [Acknowledgments](ack.html#ack)
  
  
  [Introduction](int.html#int)
  
  
  [Transcription](tra.html#tra)
  
  
  [**CHAPTER 1 The Society Kim Il Sung Built and How He Did It**](ch1.html#ch1)
  
  
  [Captain Kim Returns Home](ch1.html#lev1)
  
  
  [Way to War](ch1.html#lev2)
  
  
  [Between Moscow and Beijing: The Foreign Policy of Kim Il Sung’s North
  Korea](ch1.html#lev3)
  
  
  [Dealing with the South](ch1.html#lev4)
  
  
  [The Command Society](ch1.html#lev5)
  
  
  [A Country of Camps](ch1.html#lev6)
  
  
  [The World According to Kim Il Sung](ch1.html#lev7)
  
  
  [The Silver Lining in a Social Disaster](ch1.html#lev8)
  
  
  [The Birth of Juche, the Rise of the Son, and the Slow-Motion Demise of a
  Hyper-Stalinist Economy](ch1.html#lev9)
  
  
  [**CHAPTER 2 Two Decades of Crisis**](ch2.html#ch2)
  
  
  [And Then the World Changed](ch2.html#lev10)
  
  
  [Capitalism Reborn](ch2