Historical Dictionary of North Korea (Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East)

This reference features a country that is little known to the West and even to its Asian neighbors because policy has been one of isolation and self-reliance for the past half-century. Now, however, is an opportune time for the outside world to pay attention and come to understand North Korea's political, economic, and social system because, for the first time in fifty years, North Korea's new ruler Kim Jong II is initiating an invitation to the outside world. Will this opening of North Korea's doors save its economic system or cause it to collapse?

The author looks at North Korea's new leadership and its foreign policy of isolationism and explores whether it will have to change in recognition of the changing environment of the Korean peninsula. Profiled in this book are the people, places, political system, economy, ideology, and the history that have made North Korea what it is today.