Book about North Korea that sounds interesting.

`.... At least Kim Il Sung enjoyed some respect within his country for
his role as the founder of the North. He also faced some checks,
admittedly limited, on his power: unlike Kim Jong Il, he held regular
meetings of cadres. But after his father's death in 1994, Kim Jong Il
transformed North Korea from an odious totalitarian regime into
something actually worse, ''a Marxist Sun King'' state that was ready
to oversee an unparalleled orgy of extravagance and absolutism.

Details of that extravagance are drawn from Kim's former lackeys. ''For
all the immense privileges enjoyed by . . . those who ruled the Soviet
Union and China, they did not aspire to a live a life completely alien
to their countrymen,'' Becker writes. ''They did not show signs of a
consuming desire to emulate the tastes of a jet-set billionaire.'' Kim
does -- and he has built a stable of 100 imported limousines, as well
as an entourage of women who are trained in ''pleasure groups'' to
service the leader sexually. Kim imports professional wrestlers from
the United States, at a cost of $15 million, to entertain him. And when
he decided to build a film industry, he did what Hollywood studio heads
could only dream about -- kidnapped foreign directors and actors and
forced them to work for him. His wine cellars contain more than 10,000
French bottles. He flies in chefs from Italy to prepare pizza.
Meanwhile, his people scrounge for edible roots.

Hunger had been a problem under Kim Il Sung. But under Kim Jong Il,
Becker writes, it became possibly ''the most devastating famine in
history,'' with death rates approaching 15 percent of the population,
surpassing ''any comparable disaster in the 20th century,'' even
China's under Mao. (One of Becker's previous books was about the famine
in China in the late 1950's and early 60's.) By some estimates, over
three million North Koreans have died, more victims than in Pol Pot's
Cambodia, and international agencies are warning that this year may
bring particularly serious hunger. ....`

(from review in nyt.com of `Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming
Threat of North Korea` by Jasper Becker)

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Relevant Pages

  • Untergetauchter des Tages
    ... Kim Jong Il ... nordkoreanischen Staatschefs Kim Jong Il in China hat am Dienstag für ... Die südkoreanische Nachrichtenagentur Yonhap ...
    (de.soc.politik.misc)
  • Re: Im so sorry anh Veeveo!
    ... Sao da.o na`y anh Vee muo^'n la`m su+? ... South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed regret ... Pyongyang would return to international nuclear talks if Washington ...
    (soc.culture.vietnamese)
  • Re: Plausibility of the 21st Century Thus Far: Kim Jong Il
    ... Does the current Kim have progeny? ... Kim Jong-il is believed to have fathered three children - Kim Sul Song, ... Jong Nam and Kim Jong Chul - each of whom has a different mother. ... who apparently never married his father. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: nuke kid on the block???
    ... What was/is ONE thing that Mr. Kim every do to you or Japan? ... a program to BUILD that mighty Bomb, too, yes! ... Well GWB got Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong Il ...
    (soc.culture.laos)