When Kim Jong-il died in 2011, the world held its breath as North Korea entered uncharted waters. No other communist dictatorship in the last century – for that matter no other autocratic state that is not a monarchy – has been able to successfully transfer power to a third generation. Some analysts in Washington and elsewhere raised the possibility of the country collapsing in mere months.
But when that didn’t happen, a new theory arose – would he be the great reformer to lead North Korea to the community of nations? 8 years on, that has not yet happened either.
We still know so little about the North Korean leader – and so much of how we think of Kim Jong-un comes from media portrayals, the parodies, and assumptions amalgamated from our knowledge of other autocrats.
But a new book provides the first comprehensive and readable study of the incumbent North Korean leader. Written by the veteran Washington Post correspondent Anna Fifield, the exhaustively researched new book, titled “The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un” provides a more rounded picture of the first North Korean leader to meet the U.S. president.
Anna Fifield (@annafifield) came to KEI and sat down with KEI President Ambassador Kathleen Stephens – in fact, just before the Trump-Kim meeting on June 30, 2019 - for a brief chat.
Discussion with North Korean Defectors
Talking Trilateral: U.S.-South Korea-Japan Relations
President Moon Jae-In Takes Office in Seoul
Addressing Continuity in South Korean Foreign Policy
North Korea Sanctions: The View from South Korea
[Rebroadcast] Examining the Korean Economy
South Korea's Growing Role in Myanmar
Korean American Day 2017: Chemical Engineer Dr. Kook-wha Koh
An American Executive in a Korean Chaebol
The Chinese Perspective on THAAD
Can Information Really Pry Open North Korea?
New Silk Road? Korea in China's One Belt, One Road Initiative
[Rebroadcast] The Kim Monarchy: Reframing Political Legitimacy in North Korea
Documenting Human Rights in North Korea
The Tearful Reunion Myth: Exploring Challenges Korean Adoptees Face While Searching for Their Birth Families
Using Information to Reduce the North Korean Threat
Korean American Day 2017: Exploring Space with Dr. David Oh
U.S. Forces Korea: The Big Move to Camp Humphreys
2017 on the Korean Peninsula
Will UN Sanctions Finally Stop North Korea?
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