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Origins of North Korea's Juche: Colonialism, War, and Development Jae-jung Suh ed., Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013. Hardcover 181 pp. U.S. $59.65. ISBN: 978-0-7391-7658-0
This book is a very welcome contribution to the growing, but still not widely disseminated, area of literature that seeks to go beyond mere descriptions of North Korea, and explain the origins of its characteristics. Editor Jae-Jung Suh has sought to put together a book that alters global misconceptions, not least held by many in America, about North Korea. As editor Jae-Jung Suh points out, the country has often been believed to be simply evil, first by nature of being a Soviet satellite state during the Cold War, and later, "evil in its own right" (1).
The book analyzes a number of crucial historical developments that have led to the current state of modern North Korea, all encapsulated in the framework of historical institutionalism. Put simply, the book seeks to explain how the institution of Juche has evolved under pressures from changes in the world and shaped by actors in the North Korean system.
Hongkoo Han analyzes the impact of the Minsaengdan incident of the 1930s on North Korea's political culture. Gwang-Oon Kim explains how Juche itself came to be by looking at the dynamics of the relationship...