(Part 2) Best korean history books according to redditors

This book, it's amazing. Rather than people speculating about what goes on there, it's full of actual stories from actual people there. Some of it is just unbelievable. They live in a fantasy world, except that fantasy implies something fantastic.

Also, this documentary is fascinating:

"Inside Undercover In North Korea" (5 parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_268_pBvPs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0t9fztpsOY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAipMzjaHzA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDR7j0sqYjA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4puhfLTzdc

I'm not an expert by a longshot, but I think having read one entire book on North Korea puts me ahead of the average layperson-on-the-internet curve, lol. (Highly recommend that book, btw.)

And I agree that caution is necessary here, and that many people online are counting chickens. Even presuming that Un has decided to get his Nobel Peace Prize, it's a loooooong road ahead.

We still don't really understand the purges Un has done to his senior staff; we still don't really understand the deals he has with Russia, we still don't fully know how hard China has been pressing him. There's a lot of unknowns here.

And, hey, it's not impossible that all of these factors have aligned such that we're on a path to peace. It's UNLIKELY, I agree. And it's IMPOSSIBLE that things will be awesome overnight. I'd say that there are 70% odds that this is a complete bamboozle, 5% odds that Un has decided to turn the whole thing around, and 25% odds that it's something in the middle.

And that 25% is what keeps me the most hopeful, because any progress would be welcomed at this point.

Re: Un's Nobel-- At some point, you know that he's thought about it. There is a way out for him and his government, for them to keep their riches and their harems, for them to get out while the getting is "good." Un is known, like his father before him, to have his vices. The choice could be as simple as "be rich, live trapped in Pyongyang, have a harem, be constantly concerned that you'll be assassinated, and work all the time" and "be rich, live a life where you can travel, have a harem, be significantly less concerned that you'll be assassinated, get a nobel peace prize, and have significantly less actual day-to-day work to do."

Joseon era:

• A Review of Korean History, Vol.2: Joseon Era; Woo, Han Young (2010)
  
• Sources of Korean Tradition, Vol. 1: From Early Times Through the 16th Century (Introduction to Asian Civilizations); Lee, Peter H. (ed) (1996)
  
• Sources of Korean Tradition, Vol. 2: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries; Lee, Peter H. (ed) (1996)
  
  I prefer the 'Review' more, but it might come across as a little dry. I feel that it does a fair job of discussing a number of topics related to the creation and running of the Joseon Dynasty, breaking the dynasty up into smaller components and then focusing on some areas (arts, military, cultural practices) within those smaller time frames. 'Sources' for me came across as more academic than 'Review' but you might enjoy it more. 'Sources' includes translations of primary sources, which is helpful, while 'Review' includes images such as paintings and maps.
  
  General:
  
  
• Korea Unmasked: In Search of the Country, the Society and the People; Rhie Won-bok (2005)
  
  A comic book that goes into the 'making' of Korea and Korean culture. I have some reservations about this one but if you don't take it too seriously it can be a fun and easy way to get introduced to a number of topics related to Korea.
  
  'Modern' Korea:
  
  
• The Dawn of Modern Korea; Lankov, Andrei (2007)
  
• Korea Through Western Eyes, Book, Written in English; Neff, Robert (2009)
  
• The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History; Oberdorfer, Don (2013)
  
• Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History; Cummings, Bruce (2005)
  
• The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies; Breen, Michael (2014)
  
• Korea And Her Neighbours...; Bird, Isabella (2011; original 1897)
  
  Lankov's book is a collection of newspaper articles he wrote entertaining subjects like the story of Korea's first automobiles, the introduction of the first telephones, etc. Easy to digest and they offer a glimpse of what society was like at each point in time; not a 'serious' book on Korean history, though. Neff's book was a chore to get through and it felt like no editing had gone into the book before publishing. If I'm not mistaken this also started out as a series of articles for one of the local newspapers; the transition from article to book did not go quite as well.
  
  It's probably been 10 years since I read the books from Breen, Oberdorfer and Cummings, which makes it a little difficult to write a lot about them. Cummings I know gets criticized for being pro-North Korea in his writing, so that's something to keep in mind, while Oberdorfer I think was a correspondent living in Korea so may have a more 'eyewitness' approach to some of the events. Bird's book is a description of her travels in Korea during the Joseon period and I remember it being an interesting read. Not a balanced historical account by any means - and it obviously suffers from being written from an outside perspective at a time when ethnocentrism was more prevalent - but it may be an alternative to consider. You should be able to find a .pdf copy of that one online.
  
  
• Fifteen Years Among The Top-Knots: Or Life In Korea; Underwood, Lillias H. (2007, original 1904)
  
  Haven't read this one, but I've seen others mention it in the past. It's another first-person account from Korea at the cusp of the 20th century, this time from the perspective of a medical missionary. Again, not an objective history book, but if you prefer first-person narratives it may at least be worth a look. A .pdf copy has been published online, this one by the University of Oregon.
  
  Edit: One I forgot to mention, but which I've also heard is used in some English-language classes on Korean history/studies:
  
  
• Korea Old and New: A History; Eckert, Carter J. (1991) (I just noticed this is also mentioned by seaturtles7777)

It's not a cut and dry, one thing or another issue. I am talking about why North Korea has had famine issues over the last half century.

I really recommend reading Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, which goes into depth about the formation of North Korea, why it was founded, why Kim Il Sung came to power, and in depth history about North Korea through the 1990's with Kim Jong Il.

The state of North Korea is really tied to the Kim Il Sung's reign, and the Juche philosophy, which is why North Korea is so insular and xenophobic.

So the broader history book is A New History of Korea and starts very very far back. It will provide a general overview of Korean history. As for modern history if you don't know much about Korea's modern history a good place to start is Korea's 20th Century Odyssey. It starts in around the 1890s and if I remember correctly ends with the democracy movements of the 1980s. It very clearly divides the different periods of Korea's 20th century experience e.g. the colonial period, the war and the Park Chung-Hee regime. It is a very good starting point. If you want to have a deeper understanding of the colonial period there are two books I would recommend, the first being Colonial Modernity in Korea which covers a lot of the developments in Korea during the colonial period. Another book I want to recommend is Under the Black Umbrella which is a collection of first hand experiences and stories of people who lived during the colonial period. As for the Park Chung-Hee period there are two suggestions I have but they mostly focus more on economic policy and development. The first book is Korea's Development Under Park Chung-Hee and the second book is Reassessing the Park Chung-Hee Era. Both are pretty high in economic content but the second book does also have a lot of content focusing on political developments. If you read a few of these you will have a good understanding of Korean modern history.

I've been following the development of DPRK for a few years and I'm sad to say there isn't one comprehensive resource available. At least not in English or any other language I understand.

However, I do recommend watching this short video and then following up by reading North Korea's Hidden Revolution by Jieun Baek. It's a very recent book and in my opinion it offers the best insight into the whole ordeal without becoming too technical about specific second-tier people and political parties. It does however encompass some drama because it's mainly written by gathering intel from DPRK defectors.

Edit: This is the real video. No joke.

https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-North-Korean-Revolution-1945-1950/dp/0801452139

e: and before you ask for something more current the only reason this book exists is because the Americans stole millions of documents before leaving Korea. They are currently stored at the College Park Maryland if you want to become a historian of Korea. No such archive exists for a period after this so it's basically impossible to do real scholarship about everyday life in North Korea to a scientific standard. Obviously this does not stop anyone but that only means garbage like Nothing To Envy comes out instead of real research. Sucks but that's the world we live in.

First, I have a very US-centric perspective, so you may notice that in my recommendations. I'm just looking at my bookcase recommending anything I've read and enjoyed (if it's on my bookcase, I enjoyed it). I have a lot more books in boxes, so if you want more recommendations do let me know. Also, if you want more information on any of the books, feel free to ask me.

Books:

History of the World by J.M. Roberts

A Study of History by Arnold Tonybee

Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization by Bruce Thorton

The Story of Civilization - Will & Ariel Durant

Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin by Gordon Cucullu

The Fall of Japan: The Last Blazing Weeks of World War II by William Craig

The Century of Revolution: 1603-1714 by Christopher Hill

China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture by Charles Hucker

Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and Politics by Colbert Held

Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Ian Bickerton

The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict by Walter Lagueur

A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas Madden

The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture 1880-1950

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X

The Second World War by Winston Churchill

Documentaries:

The World at War

Ken Burns: The Civil War

Civilisation: A Personal View

Here are my recommendations for readings on Korean history. The list is somewhat heavy on Chosŏn (1392-1910) history mainly because it is my main research interest. If you are interested on more readings on Chosŏn history, feel free to shoot me a message.

Textbook Histories

• Eckert, Carter J. et al. Korea Old and New: A History. Seoul: Ilchokak, 1990.
  
• Seth, Michael J. A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.
  
  Academic Monographs
  
  
• Duncan, John B. The Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000
  
  • Solid study on the nature of the 1392 dynastic transition. Duncan looks at the prevalence of Koryŏ (918-1392) elites in the new Chosŏn government as evidence of systemic continuity. The main argument covers the late Silla (668-918,) Koryŏ, and Chŏson eras.
    
• Deuchler, Martina. The Confucian Transformation of Korea: A Study of Society and Ideology. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 1992.
  
  • Description available in the reading list.
    
• Yi Tae-jin. The Dynamics of Confucianism and Modernization in Korean History. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2007.
  
  • Translation of a number of scholarly articles written by professor Yi Taejin (Seoul National University) on the issue of Neo-Confucianism and development in Chosŏn history. The final chapters provide an interesting rebuke of Japanese colonialist and Korean nationalist historiography.
    
• Palais, James B. Confucian Statecraft and Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the Late Chosŏn Dynasty. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
  
  • Monumental study of Yu Hyŏngwŏn's (Pan'gye) Pan'gye surok. In it, Palais discusses intellectual developments in the late Chosŏn period that challenged orthodox Zheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.
    
• Eckert, Carter. Offspring of Empire: The Koch'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876-1945.Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
  
  • Study on the Koch'ang Kim family, owners of the Kyŏnbang Spinning and Weaving Company. The monograph raises the issues of the Japanese "modernization" of peninsular economy during colonial times, Korean collaborators with the Japanese administration, as well as Korea's place in the larger Japanese imperial structure.
    
• Cumings, Bruce. The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. I.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
  
  • Seminal study on the causes of the Korean War (1950-1953.) Cumings proposes that the Korean War cannot be simply understood as a provocation by the North. Instead, Cumings argues that division by the Allied Powers in 1945 led to armed conflict.
    
    Primary Sources
    
    
• Lee, Peter H. and Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed. Sources of Korean Tradition, Vol. I: From Early Times Through the Seventeenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. and Ch'oe, Yŏng-ho and Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed. Sources of Korean Tradition, Vol II: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
  
  • Anthologies of translated primary sources. The sourcebooks include literature ranging from official dynastic histories, philosophical treatises, and memorials to the throne to private correspondence, political manifestos, and speeches.
    
• Choi Byonghyon, trans. The Annals of King Taejo. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014.
  
  • Complete translation into English of the Veritable Records of King T'aejo (r. 1392-1398.) The Veritable Records (K. *Chosŏn wangjo sillok*) are the posthumously-compiled official records kept for every Chosŏn monarch. They register court activities, diplomatic writings, as well as other administrative affairs.
    
• JaHyun Kim Haboush, trans. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
  
  • Translation of Lady Hyegyŏng's (1735-1816) four memoirs. Lady Hyegyŏng was the consort of Crown Prince Sado (1735-1762,) the son and heir of King Yŏngjo (r. 1724-1776.) Crown Prince Sado was locked on a rice chest until his death on the orders of his father.

Thanks for the serious and academic reply!

Regarding their program being a bargaining chip - it was this way when they offered to reverse their decision during the 90s (after having left the NPT). They were of course serious then about building nuclear weapons - though willing to bargain it away for the assurances they felt they could have if they were build. If a state intends to use weapons capabilities as one of their bargaining chip they have to be serious about actually pursuing the capabilities or the threat has no teeth in the diplomacy. But anyway, the nuclear program began long, long before bilateral diplomacy (they had asked both China and the Soviet Union for help decades prior).

In the 90s they had intended to develop nuclear weapons because they saw the Soviet Union and the protection offered by great power balance collapse and because the US and ROK had been refusing international inspections programs to prove that they had themselves been removing nuclear warheads from the peninsula.

And NK did seriously suspend their nuclear program during the Agreed Framework under the Sunshine Policy - were serious about abandoning it for security assurances. NK had used their pursuit of a nuclear weapon as a bargaining chip for security assurances. US Ambassadors and Diplomats from Charles Pritchard to Wendy Sherman evaluate this as having nearly succeeded but for the massive change from the Clinton to Bush administrations, where Bush had tried to simultaneously use coercion and persuasion (these don't work well together), tactics to collapse the regime and prevented the US from fulfilling its side of the agreements. This curtled the DPRK trust in the United States, and they doubled down on their program, seeking deterrence from capability rather than deterrence from agreement. I wouldn't call progress on their program slow by any measure.

That's to say it's crucial to understand that the North had been bargaining for security against the actions it feared it needed to pursue nuclear weapons for in the first place.

"Nukes=sovereignty" isn't an equation I think anyone, including officials in the North would condone. Nukes contribute to certain security garuntees against particular types of military engagements. And in fact the ones they have now still wouldn't be capable of full deterrence. In the longer term, North Korea hopes to pursue a full nuclear triad - which gives much stronger deterrence guarantees. But they don't ensure diplomatic security, they don't ensure security against economic warfare, and they don't secure the regime against externally source destabilization operations. We both know that MAD alone isn't a reasonable or realistic metric. Agreed that the cost imposition is a real deterrent.

So anyway, agreed entirely it isn't black-and-white. It's just very much not right to say that strategic deterrence isn't a primary feature of the programme.

The opportune times in history to wipe out NK have been equally inopportune. In the mid 60s through early 80s, due to unpopular, brutal and expensive land wars in Asia, subsequent presidents were promising to remove US presence from the peninsula - and it was only through a very think ringer of bribes that military presence was kept. During the 80's there was some effort but NK was not a priority - having been off the front roster of the still ongoing Cold War for some time. Probably the best time would have been after the Soviet Union collapsed - but at this point the United States and ROK were engaged to try to include NK into the rest of the world economy and to build a peaceful coexistence. It's only when real efforts to collapse and occupy the regime went into affect that they abondoned the diplomatic track. We might have been able to pull it off then as well, except that expensive, brutal and unpopular ground wars in the Middle East kept our full attention.

> The two Koreas were separately admitted as member states to the UN in 1991.

> Having two separate seats despite a single language, culture and history is clearly not normal.

> This year marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the Korean Peninsula remains stifled by a wall of division.

> …

> I call on the international community to stand with us in tearing down the world’s last remaining wall of division.

> …

> A unified Korea will be the starting point for a world without nuclear weapons, offer a fundamental solution to the North Korean human rights issue, and help unlock a stable and cooperative Northeast Asia.

> …

> The founders of the UN were not deterred by the heat of war from looking to the future and planning for a peaceful post-war world.

President Park Geun-hye in an address to the UN on Korean Unification

Though I might also link her (very rare) public appeal to the ROK, in which she pitched occupation of the North a "bonanza". And the ROK's efforts to reeducate youth on the importance of reunification by altering school textbooks.

This is a list that I saved (from reddit a while back. I wish I could give credit to the original poster, but the person who posted it also quoted the list. So whoever compiled this list. KUDOS! I wish I could give you credit:

>So the broader history book is A New History of Korea and starts very very far back. It will provide a general overview of Korean history. As for modern history if you don't know much about Korea's modern history a good place to start is Korea's 20th Century Odyssey. It starts in around the 1890s and if I remember correctly ends with the democracy movements of the 1980s. It very clearly divides the different periods of Korea's 20th century experience e.g. the colonial period, the war and the Park Chung-Hee regime. It is a very good starting point. If you want to have a deeper understanding of the colonial period there are two books I would recommend, the first being Colonial Modernity in Korea which covers a lot of the developments in Korea during the colonial period. Another book I want to recommend is Under the Black Umbrella which is a collection of first hand experiences and stories of people who lived during the colonial period. As for the Park Chung-Hee period there are two suggestions I have but they mostly focus more on economic policy and development. The first book is Korea's Development Under Park Chung-Hee and the second book is Reassessing the Park Chung-Hee Era. Both are pretty high in economic content but the second book does also have a lot of content focusing on political developments. If you read a few of these you will have a good understanding of Korean modern history.

Yeah, that's interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I always thought the biggest issue was the millions of people who will have to be somehow integrated into a more open Korean society and who also lack the skills of people in the south.


Andrei Lankov's book on DPRK-

https://www.amazon.com/Real-North-Korea-Politics-Stalinist/dp/0199390037

For a general Korea reference and read there is alway the "dictionary" types of books like "Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary" (google books link with preview)

however they can be a bit limited, thankfully there is "The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty" however, the vast majority doesn't have official english translation available. Though the first part does have a translation in "The Annals of King T'aejo: Founder of Korea’s Chosŏn Dynasty" available from amazon (cheaper) or Harvard Uni. Press and if you ever wanted to learn Korean here's the whole of the annals in Korean (all 1,893 volumes), they are in the process of a complete translation (started in 2012) though it won't be done until the 2030s because of the sheer volume to translate.

Thank you! I tend to look at history as a whole picture, as events tend to not occur in a vacuum. I started doing that with researching what led to genocide and the long term consequences of it, but it also applies to stuff like K-Pop.

I don't know how much you're interested in K-Pop history, but if you want to do research, here are some resources that I use:

• Globalization and Popular Music in South Korea: Sounding Out K-Pop by Michael Fuhr
  
  • If you’re interested in learning about K-Pop from more of an academic view, this is a great book for that. This book even goes as far back as the late-1800s to explain how music in Korea changed after westerners started hanging around. It’s primarily written from a cultural anthropology view, but also goes into music theory. The only problem I had with it is the inaccurate information it states about H.O.T basics (that could easily have been checked on Wikipedia). Amazon is pretty much the only place you can get this book.
    
• Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music, and Internet Culture (2nd Edition) by Mark Russell
  
  • Informative book primarily about the history of movies and Chaebol companies in Korea. There are also interesting chapters about television and comics. Not the best source for learning about K-Pop, as the small section mainly just talked about Lee Soo-man. I also got this book from Amazon.
    
• KOFICE
  
  • Short for “Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange”, this site has a wealth of information about the Hallyu Wave. Most notably, it produces Global Hallyu Reports about how the Hallyu Wave effects Korea’s politics, economy, and cultural outreach.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

> Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean

This is a lie, Hangul was even taught in schools, Hangul was previously banned before Japanese rule

https://0x0.st/zoPk.jpg

>During the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, outraged South Koreans demanded an apology from NBC after a commentatorasserted that Korea’s transformation into a global powerhouse was due to the “cultural, technological and economic example” of Japan. For many South Koreans, analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo’s statement reopened old wounds—ones carved by a generation of occupation of the country by Japan.

Except he's factually correct, Japan improved quality of life, average life expectancy, education, infrastructure and much more.

Korea didn't even have a money system before Japan they used barter and they were one of the poorest countries

>Any reasonable person familiar with the history of Japanese imperialism, and the atrocities it committed before and during WWII, would find such a statement deeply hurtful and outrageous

Any person familiar with the history of Korea know it is factually correct.

>Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean

Again this is false and there is 0 evidence of this

Literacy rates of Korean in Korean language was only 10% at the beginning of Japanese rule, at the end of Japanese rule it was 65%, it's only 75% now.

Source https://web.archive.org/web/20131012205335im_/http://img.hani.co.kr/section-kisa/2003/10/08/00500000012003100801065086.jpg

>they chopped down trees by the millions and planted non-native species

this is false

while japan did increase the forest industry by 2.57 times they also reforested lots of land, 50x more land was forested than before japanese rule

source: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0710308124/qid=1119366127/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1383104-7833623?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4334006345/250-4809497-4372253

https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4898272398/qid=1126632976/250-4809497-4372253

>That's why they still have very good relations to these days.

You realise the CIA were interfering in Phillipines elections so that it would become a Pro US country?

https://www.manilatimes.net/how-cia-has-been-meddling-in-philippine-presidential-elections/263363/

http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/filipinas/doc/cia.html

>Guam is basically a military base. Like the native population is smaller than the military personal stationed there.

because of the us invading and oppressing the natives

>The Bikini Atoll has 5 people living there.

I'm sure they appreciate the radiation

>Puerto Rico tries to become a State. You're describing one small fringe movement.

It wasn't fringe many Puerto Ricans wanted Independence, they even voted for it but were denied it.

>The US never colonized

Right I forgot Americans were the native settlers of America.

>,no slaves, no cultural genocide etc.

hahahahaahahahahahahhahahahaa

>What kind of twisted Logic is that? So it's the US fault that people died in a war that was caused by the Japanese?

You were the one using that dumb logic, if it's Tojo's faulted for ordering Pearl harbour it is America's fault for making Japan open it's borders leading to the Meiji restoration

>The Railway Incident has been proven to be staged to allow Japan to justify the war.

That was in 1931, the Sino-Japanese started in 1937 after Chinese attacked japanese settlements in Shanghai.

There's a recent book about this (up to 1950, at least):

Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950

Did you read Lankov's recent book? Good stuff.

Its been documented in investigative journalism pieces.

Edit: Among other pieces, there is this https://www.amazon.com/North-Koreas-Hidden-Revolution-Transforming/dp/0300217811/ref=pd_sim_14_5/146-5556872-5149531?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0300217811&pd_rd_r=F44MTF7AYB17M7T0R1VY&pd_rd_w=qUWgx&pd_rd_wg=BX60R&psc=1&refRID=F44MTF7AYB17M7T0R1VY

New Village is quite an interesting read. This text is dense but I read it for my Asian studies course and it's a good touchstone piece where you can start to learn about modern Korean development. They take more of a biographical approach as opposed to an economic one but those are the only two texts I've read on the topic but they form a good baseline level of understanding in regards to post-War Korean advancement.

> not to mention reversing decades of psychological and political brainwashing.

am reading this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-State-North-Korea-Future/dp/B00PWOK478

so sadly i think you are underestimating the problem, i would compare it to what people going out of a very extreme cult must go though, a complete reeducation.

here is the tread where i asked for book recommendations:

https://www.reddit.com/r/northkorea/comments/63ys9j/looking_for_a_good_ebook_about_north_korea/

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China created the rogue nuclear states of NK and Pakistan. It was brilliant on how it came about.

China gave their nuclear bomb designs to Pakistan, and missile technology to North Korea. Then NK and Pakistan swapped each other's technologies and acquired a full nuclear launch capability. All the while China claiming plausible deniability. This is classic back stabbing China. No surprise really.

>Although the Chinese profess to be against nuclear proliferation, documented evidence illustrates just the opposite -- as a means of asserting Chinese hegemony, complicating American security policy and undermining American influence.


Both North Korea and Pakistan are the bane of their existence to their neighbors. All thanks to China. What China has done to destabilize global security is unimaginable if not unpardonable.


Must read books on the subject.

Failed Diplomacy: The Tragic Story of How North Korea Got the Bomb

Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb

The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics

North Korea's Serious New Nuclear Missile Threat


Don't be surprised if one of these two rogue terrorist countries detonates the next nuclear weapon. Either intentional or stolen by jihadis. Just a matter of time. We can all thank China then.

Edit - word.

>【p.203】 The number of students in the schools enumerated in the foregoing table has increased between 1911 and 1924 from 110,789 to 542,679, the greatest increase being in the number attending the Common Schools, which rose from 20,121 to 361,710 (almost entierly Korean children), and the Elementary Schools, which rose from 15,509 to 56,049 (almost entirely Japanese children). The above figures do not include the pupils in two classes of institutions―Kindergartens, and Sohtang. The number of Children in the former increased from 141,604 to 256,851. The Sohtang are elementary private schools conducted by Koreans, in which little is taught except the Chinese classics and brush writing.

>【p.208】 The personnel and office expenses for educational administration and incorporated in the expenditure of the central and are met by the State Treasury. Apart from the items refferd to above, the educational expenditure is met by the Goverment-General, and by three classes of Public Corporations, viz., provinancial bodies, District Educational bodies, and School Asociations.


http://raskb.com/udenlibrary/disk4/308.pdf

Population of Korea in 1910 (Prior to Japanese annexation) 13 Million

Population of Korea in 1945 (End of Japanese occupation) 26 million

Average salary in Korea in 1910, 58 yen

Average salary in Korea in 1938 119 yen

Average yearly GDP growth of Korea over total annexation period, 4%

In 1944 Korea had a 61% enrollment rate, prior to this it was less than 1%

Average life span went from 26 to 42

Sources: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0710308124/qid=1119366127/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1383104-7833623?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4334006345/250-4809497-4372253

https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4898272398/qid=1126632976?redirect=true