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Bipolar Orders: The Two Koreas since 1989 Hyung Gu Lynn, London: Zed Books, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-84277-743-5, 210 pages.
Providing a general background to both North and South Korea, this book answers obvious questions, such as, How did the peninsula become partitioned in the first place? How did the South eventually become more democratic? What are the long-term causes of the North's diplomatic and economic estrangement? Given that this publication is part of the Global History of the Present series, its main focus is upon the post-Cold War period. Hyung Gu Lynn conducts thematic surveys. Broadly speaking, the first half of the book is devoted to outlining social, economic and political developments within the southern state. The second half then focuses upon the same issues within the northern counterpart.
Although this approach may sound pretty standard, Lynn nonetheless seeks to emphasize several key themes throughout his book. One of which is that change is an ongoing process inside both countries. As the Republic of Korea has moved further away from dictatorship, so the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has adopted (however reluctantly) some measure of profit-incentive reform (p. 4). A second key theme is what the author refers to as a "Decussation Effect,"or the idea that an action can have completely contradictory consequences. For example, despite the North's rhetoric and nuclear ambitions, there is now increasing criticism of the United States and increasing pro-North Korean sentiment within the South. That said, however, Lynn notes that southern...