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Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. Lifting North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take readers inside a society, that to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from birth to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of megalomaniacs.
To North Koreans, the Kims are more than just leaders. Kim Il-Sung is the country's leading novelist, philosopher, historian, educator, designer, literary critic, architect, general, farmer, and ping-pong trainer. Radios are made so they can only be tuned to the official state frequency. "Newspapers" are filled with endless columns of Kim speeches and propaganda. And instead of Christmas, North Koreans celebrate Kim's birthday--and he presents each child a present, just like Santa.
The regime that the Kim Dynasty has built remains technically at war with the United States nearly a half century after the armistice that halted actual fighting in the Korean War. This fascinating and complete history takes full advantage of a great deal of source material that has only recently become available (some from archives in Moscow and Beijing), and brings the reader up to the tensions of the current day. For as this book will explain, North Korea appears more and more to be the greatest threat among the Axis of Evil countries--with some defector testimony warning that Kim Jong-Il has enough chemical weapons to wipe out the entire population of South Korea.
- Sales Rank: #1260018 in Books
- Published on: 2004-10-15
- Released on: 2004-09-23
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.92" h x 2.27" w x 5.98" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 880 pages
From Booklist
Under different circumstances, North Korea could be the subject of a Marx Brothers satire, with the elements of a pompous, ego-driven patriarch, a worshipful population, and a general aura of fantasy and illusion. But North Korea has a superbly equipped million-man army and an expanding nuclear weapons program. So this comprehensive examination of this totalitarian society and the two men who have dominated it is often terrifying. For a quarter century, Martin has covered North Korea while working for the Baltimore Sun, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. Using newly available material from Russian and Chinese sources, Martin offers surprising insights into the career and character of both Kim Il-Sung and his son, Kim Jong-Il. He strives, albeit with moderate success, to unveil the reality from the mounds of myth and distortions with which both men have surrounded themselves. But Martin's account is most chilling in his descriptions of contemporary North Korean society. And yet, as Martin eloquently illustrates in this important book, the control of the Kim dynasty may well be tenuous. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is, from all I have read, simply the best book ever written about North Korea. Relying largely on extensive interviews with defectors, Martin portrays North Korean life with a clarity that is stunning, and he captures the paradoxes in North Korean public opinion."--Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Review of Books
"Martin's massive book provides as useful a set of insights into life in North Korea as can be found anywhere."
- L.A. Times Review
"As an AP correspondent covering South Korea in the 1970s, I learned quickly how difficult it was to discover any reliable information about that secretive, threatening regime to the north. Brad Martin's book is testimony to the thoroughness of his work, and the high level of his ability as a journalist and researcher.
" North Korea is one of the least known, least understood countries in the world. Its leaders have always been enigmas, both frightening and fascinating, but almost impossible to decipher. Again today, it becomes vitally important that we do both, yet there is almost nothing of importance being written about the subject. Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is important, as well as fascinating. The research is impeccable, the writing excellent. This is a major and timely contribution, and essential to anyone who hopes to deal sensibly with a vital region of the world."
-Terry Anderson, former AP correspondent and author of Den of Lions
"Brad Martin's Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, a careful, penetrating analysis of North Korea, is more than just a book. Given the levels of secrecy which surround the Pyongyang regime and the danger it poses to its neighbors, Martin has rendered a considerable service to us all."
-bestselling author, David Halbertstam
"Brad Martin's book on North Korea is at once enlightening and frightening. It is lucid in writing, balanced in analysis, and comprehensive in its meticulous research and anecdotal evidence. The detailed exposition of the narrow life of luxury and the devious character of the 'Dear Leader,' Kim Jong-il, is scary. So is the description of North Korea as a corrupt, secretive, stagnant fief of the Kim family. Brad Martin, with his long years as a Pyongyang-watcher, is eminently qualified to write a book that should strip away any illusions America and the West have about Kim's dangerous regime."
-Richard Halloran, former correspondent for The New York Times in Asia and Washington, D.C.
From the Back Cover
Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from infancy to follow fanatically the despots Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader lifts North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation to offer in-depth portraits of its Orwellian leaders, taking readers inside a society that might seem to be from another planet.
This book is already being hailed as an Asian studies classic, rigorously researched and spellbinding in its storytelling. The chief U.S. envoy was photographed carrying his personal copy as he prepared to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Now revised and expanded for the paperback, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader for many years to come will define a Spartan, stubbornly enigmatic society.
Praise for Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader
"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is, from all I have read, simply the best book ever written about North Korea. . . . Martin portrays North Korean life with a clarity that is stunning."
―Nicholas Kristof, The New York Review of Books
"An excellent book, well researched and lucidly written. It is especially refreshing to find someone showing serious interest in North Korean propaganda instead of merely hooting at it."
―B. R. Myers, The Atlantic Monthly
"A careful, penetrating analysis of North Korea."
--David Halberstam
"Rich with revealing detail . . . Given the appalling risks of military action, we should give the type of positive engagement that Martin proposes a serious try."
―Mike Mochizuki, The Washington Post Book World
"Of course no one is really certain what goes on in North Korea. . . . [T]here has been very little human intelligence of value over the last fifty years or so. . . . Bradley K. Martin has stepped into this breach. . . . Martin's massive book provides as useful a set of insights into life in North Korea as can be found anywhere."
―Warren I. Cohen, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Successfully combines history, society, travel writing, and political analysis in a way that makes it totally readable. . . . Must be the most comprehensive single-volume English-language book ever written on North Korea. . . . Overall, Bradley Martin has written a truly remarkable book, one that should be read by anyone even remotely interested in North Korea."
―Yoel Sano, Asia Times
"Cracking the cocoon of secrecy and propaganda surrounding North Korea is not a job for the faint of heart. Yet somehow Martin, a former Newsweek bureau chief, has pulled it off, presenting a scrupulously detailed, intimate portrait of the Kims, the world's only communist dynasty. He deconstructs the mythologized biographies of the father-and-son leaders, taking us inside their family feuds, harems, and fortified villas."
―Christian Caryl, Newsweek
"Fascinating . . . may be the best and most comprehensive English-language history of North Korea ever written."
―Jacob Margolies, The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo)
"The most comprehensive and detailed look yet at the nation-sized theme park of Kim World is Bradley Martin's Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. Mr. Martin paints a portrait of a national horror show demonstrating how ruthless, effective, and evil men can oppress their neighbors. . . . It reads like a medieval court, the Ottoman sultanate, or imperial China. . . . [T]he book paints a vast canvas of what must be as close as possible to hell on earth, other than in the very midst of war."
―Doug Bandow, The Washington Times
"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is a rich and rewarding book that anyone interested in this strange Leninist vestige should read. The sensational extravagance of the leadership; the dreadful sufferings of the common people; the ludicrous personality cults thrown up by both Kims; Kim Jong-il's need for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles (his possession of the latter is certain, of the former highly probable); the systematic destruction of normal life and language in North Korea―all this is laid out here for inspection. If I may be permitted a book reviewer's cliché: I couldn't put it down. . . . By sheer relentless accumulation of detail, Martin succeeds here in giving us a full portrait of the Kims and their filthy little tyranny."
―John Derbyshire, National Review
"Like Orville Schell's penetrating studies of China under Mao, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is destined to become a classic of Asian studies."
―Derek Pell, DingBat Magazine
"A page-turner with footnotes as interesting as the narrative."
―Get Lost Books
"Bradley Martin . . . portrays North Korea as a failed state with a dangerous weapon, but he explores as well the mentality of Mr. Kim and of his father, Kim Il-sung, whose leadership from 1948 to 1994 did so much to seal North Korea's fate. Kim Il-sung, Mr. Martin reminds us, once wrote: ‘One is pleased to see the bugs die in a fire even though one's house is burned down.' "
―Gordon G. Chang, The Wall Street Journal
"A detailed account of the world's most remote kingdom and its leaders, Kim Il-sung and ruling son Kim Jong-il. Martin's analysis illustrates that North Korea is a traditional more than a revolutionary society"
―Robert A. Scalapino, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, and coauthor of Communism in Korea, JoongAng Daily (Seoul)
"It is often said that North Korea is the most puzzling country in the world. It is a difficult place to visit. The few journalists who make it there don't have the freedom to interview anyone they want. Its archives are not open to scholars. This does not mean, however, that no information is available on North Korea. It just requires a little bit more digging and interpreting. For the last three decades, veteran journalist Bradley Martin has been compiling his notes drawn from four trips to North Korea, patient scrutiny of official publications, and interviews with numerous defectors. His book Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, an immense and detailed examination of North Korean history and politics, integrates much of the recent scholarship on the country and adds some new pieces to the puzzle. . . . The picture of North Korean society that emerges from the narrative is far more thorough and detailed than the usual monochromatic depiction of a monolithic state."
―John Feffer, Korean Quarterly
"I want to praise this book: In addition to providing a briskly written and even-handed treatment of the North Korean dictatorship, the author includes lots of interviews, and while he includes the background of the interviews, you can yourself give what credence you desire to what you read. . . . Like reading an account of the Rwanda genocides, reading this book certainly saddens one about the continuing tragedy of human oppression, all inflicted in ‘the name of the heavenly leader.' When centuries from now they tell of our times, I think they cannot fail to remark scathingly on this."
―John Howard Oxley, Strategy Page
"Excellent, highly readable overview of North Korea. I was looking for a book that would (a) go into the recent history and current state of North Korean society while hopefully being (b) well written and an engaging intellectual piece of work. This book succeeded admirably on both counts. It deals well with the history of Korea beginning in the pre-WWII era and continuing up to the present, and provides as detailed and fascinating an examination of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il as one could ever imagine reading in something written by an outsider. I enjoyed it immensely and feel like I now have a far better understanding of the forces at work in that very strange and dangerous little nation."
―Buckeye's Reviews
" ‘Axis of evil' member North Korea is not on the tourist map for most Western travelers, so its people and what their lives are like are mostly out of reach. Bradley K. Martin . . . moves North Korea within sight in this detailed account."
―Dan R. Barber, Dallas Morning News
"Under different circumstances, North Korea could be the subject of a Marx Brothers satire, with the elements of a pompous, ego-driven patriarch, a worshipful population, and a general aura of fantasy and illusion. But North Korea has a superbly equipped million-man army and an expanding nuclear weapons program. So this comprehensive examination of this totalitarian society and the two men who have dominated it is often terrifying. For a quarter century, Martin has covered North Korea while working for the Baltimore Sun, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. Using newly available material from Russian and Chinese sources, Martin offers surprising insights into the career and character of both Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il."
―Booklist
"This massive study of North Korea embraces its political and economic history over the last seventy years; the lives of its leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il; its diplomatic relations with South Korea, Japan, China, and the United States since 1945; its current crises regarding nuclear weapons and food shortages. . . . Martin, a former bureau chief for the Baltimore Sun, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, has much to offer."
―John F. Riddick, Library Journal
"A sharp-eyed look at a cold and hungry outpost of the Axis of Evil. Former Newsweek bureau chief Martin first traveled to North Korea in 1979, and what he found was a near-religious cult of personality centered on the person of Kim Il-sung, known variously as the Great Leader, Fatherly Leader, Respected and Beloved Leader, and so on, a partial listing of whose reputed achievements ‘would have aroused the envy of a Leonardo da Vinci or Thomas Jefferson.' "
―Library Journal
"As a result of North Korea's isolation, it's been extremely difficult to get any information about what goes on inside the country, apart from the testimonies of defectors. That's why Bradley Martin's book, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, is so valuable . . . perhaps the most comprehensive look at the country yet."
―Lisa Katayama, Mother Jones
"The top U.S. envoy to North Korea is reading a book about the personality cult surrounding the leadership of the North, the world's most impenetrable state. When U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill arrived at a South Korean airport on Saturday for talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, he was seen holding a book titled Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty."
―Yonhap news agency, "U.S. nuclear negotiator reading book on North Korean leaders," Yonhap dispatch, Korea Herald, May 16, 2005
"Bradley K. Martin has been watching North Korea for a quarter of a century, and his important new book proves just how much it is possible to learn about that closed and secretive country through careful observation and analysis. Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader will immediately become an indispensable source for anyone trying to make sense of the modern North Korean state. This is journalism at its best―nothing so comprehensive and authoritative has been written about North Korea for thirty years. It is frankly amazing that a non-Korean could produce such a work."
―Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute,
author of The End of North Korea
"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is important as well as fascinating. The research is impeccable, the writing excellent. This is a major and timely contribution, and essential to anyone who hopes to deal sensibly with a vital region of the world."
―Terry Anderson, former Associated Press correspondent and
author of Den of Lions
"Brad Martin's book on North Korea is at once enlightening and frightening. It is lucid in its writing, balanced in its analysis, and comprehensive in its meticulous research and anecdotal evidence. The detailed expositon of the narrow life of luxury and the devious character of the ‘Dear Leader,' Kim Jong-il, is scary. So is the description of North Korea as a corrupt, secretive, stagnant fief of the Kim family. Brad Martin, with his long years as a Pyongyang-watcher, is eminently qualified to write a book that should strip away any illusions America and the West have about Kim's dangerous regime."
―Richard Halloran, former correspondent for The New York Times
in Asia and Washington, D.C.
"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is a must read for anyone serious about trying to understand what is happening and why it may be happening in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."
―Tom Coyner, publisher of Korea Economic Reader
"The book is an absolute marvel of new information. . . . A wonderful contribution to the limited information available about North Korea and should be read by both professionals and the general public."
―Steven A. Leibo, professor of modern international history and politics, The Sage Colleges
"It's not enough to merely identify an enemy―you also have to figure out what makes him tick by listening carefully to his internal logic and investigating the myths he concocts about himself. That Mr. Martin so ably guides us to just such an understanding about a place as patently illogical to the outsider's eye as North Korea underscores what a marvelous job he has done. This is a truly excellent book―absorbing, terrifically written, and compelling."
―Tracy Dahlby, former managing editor of Newsweek International and author of Allah's Torch: A Report from Behind the Scenes in Asia's War on Terror
"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is terrific. Vastly informative, compulsively readable, it is without doubt the single best book ever written on North Korea."
―Mike Chiney, senior Asia correspondent, CNN
Most helpful customer reviews
136 of 144 people found the following review helpful.
Essential to Understanding the DPRK
By Johnnie B.
I really loved this book. Bradley Martin is a reporter who has extensively travelled in North Korea and has met many of the Kim regimes ruling caste members. He paints an intriguing portrait of North Korea.
There are many chapters, but they basically break into three categories. These deal with the rise of the Kim regime, life in North Korea, and the future of North Korea. There is certainly overlap, but these are the primary categories.
The most difficult chapters are certainly those dealing with the rise to power of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. I say this because, as Martin freely admits, there are very complicated mythologies surrounding these characters. Mr. Martin goes on the assumption that there is a nugget of truth in all myths and tries very hard to find them. As an example, there is a myth that Kim Il Sung was the most important anti-Japanese guerilla leader who nearly single handedly ejected Japanese forces from Korea. After detailed and exhaustive research, the author shows that Kim was a moderately important guerilla leader who threw his lot in with the Soviet Red Army after being defeated by Japanese forces. In this way, Mr. Martin develops what could be the most accurate picture we have of the Kims' early days. If he is found to ever be wrong, it wont be for not trying hard.
The next set of chapters revolve around everyday life in the DPRK. He gets his information partially through his trips there, but more importantly through defector testimony. Needless to say, life in the Workers'Paradise sucks. There is little food (unless you are a high level party member) and there is a constant risk you will offend someone and wind up in a prison camp. Not much we dont already know, but Martin reveals much that is new. For example, the citizenry is completely loyal despite mismanagement and abuse. Even defectors cant bring themselves to criticize the Kims! And there is much much more.
Finally, Martin looks to the future. He shows us North Korea's first faltering steps to become connected with the world economy. He also delves into who may replace Kim Jong Il in the future. I wasnt too convinced with his argument that the West should negotiate on WMD issues, but he makes the argument pretty well.
One final note. The best part of this book is Martin's credibility. He seems to have no axes to grind. He has no problem revealing the bad aspects of the DPRK or the good. Mr. Martin comes across as a straight shooter. This could be what is most important in making this such a wonderful book.
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
Can You Handle The Truth?
By Kobayashi Maru
Unfortunately, in the 21st century, nobody on the planet can afford to be ignorant about North Korea. If you had to read just one book on the country, this would be it.
I picked up this book with some trepidation. At 868 pages (including over 100 pages of excellent end-notes), it is heavy in more ways than one. Nonetheless, despite strange looks from my wife (why did you bring *that* to the beach?), I found myself drawn to finish it - wanting to soak up the next chapter of detailed firsthand testimony and thorough research that Brad Martin has laid out.
Both Korea-watching 'newbies' (like myself) and longtime experts on the peninsula will find plenty here on which to reflect. In a similar vein, it would be difficult and unfair to pigeon-hole the book as kow-towing to left or the right. Although Martin reveals his liberal leanings in some of his conclusions, he has given the reader enough first-hand material to make up her mind on her own
As a longtime journalist, Martin takes pains to mostly keep his own opinions and analysis in the background, letting the enormity of the North Korean regime gradually sink in with the reader - as it appears to have done over the course of Martin's career-long involvement with the recluse nation. At several points, after reading a "just the facts ma'am" chapter, I almost wanted to scream: "you've been watching these guys for 25 years Brad, tell us what YOU think and what we should do!" But Martin carefully builds a body of knowledge in the reader as a prerequisite to his informed, high level analyses.
North Korea is a complex, inscrutable country, and Martin has done a great job of bringing its horrors and the twisted internal logic of the Kims to light. Those looking for a quick, light read, or seeking to to become conversant only on the nuclear angle will be disappointed, but only because there is so much more to the story - collective punishment, mind control from birth, dynastic succession, corruption, starvation, communist politics, filmmaking, a complex relationship with Japan, debauchery on an epic scale, agricultural geography, the appropriation of Christian tenets and much more. It is not pleasant to know about all of this, but after reading this book I was forced to ask: "why do most Americans know so little about North Korea?" Brad Martin has given them one less excuse.
My only complaints about the book (other than its length) were chapter titles that are just a little too cute - inscrutable until one had read the entire chapter, and some defector testimony and tangential discussion (e.g., Kim Il-sung's artistic talent) that could have been edited down or summarized.
41 of 46 people found the following review helpful.
Welcome to the Hermit Kingdom
By Driver9
An extraordinary glimpse into one of the world's last Stalinist military states. Nearly impossible to penetrate and with little credible information getting out (except for high level intelligence), Bradley Martin tells an amazing story of a very important and dangerous place. To make things worse for a serious investigative writer, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have created a high octane, no holds barred cult of personality for both father and son which make it extremely difficult to separate out the real story. He deserves a creat deal of credit for this undertaking and it is far and away the best and most informative work on the DPRK to be found in English.
What I also admired about this book was Martin's restraint and his willingness to portray the actual facts, including positive ones. Granted, there is not a great deal of good news coming out of Pyongyang in the last few decades. And it would be tempting to paint both Kims as evil incarnate. Indeed, our own government has presented a two-dimensional cartoon like vision of a planetary bad guy. More of such counter-mythology is not helpful in understanding this complex and dangerous society. I was amazed at the amount of information Martin was able to pull together and the complex portrait he was able to present.
Unfortunately, the people who could most benefit from reading this book will probably never go near it. One aspect of the book I appreciated was the comparison between today's ultra-marxist state and the early Choson dynasty which governed Korea for nearly 600 year until the Japanese invasion in the 1890s. North Korea has almost completely replicated the Ancient "Hermit Kingdom" that remained closed to outsiders for centuries. The Kims have replicated the nepotism that so dominated ancient Korea, along with the vast array of palaces and the complete deification of the leadership by the peasantry.
I highly recommend Mr. Martin's book. And like it or not, North Korea is in our future.
See all 117 customer reviews...
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