The opaque State

摘要

Through western eyes, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) can seem like an almost alien land, one defined by stories of dictatorship, moribund economy, labour camps and irrationality. Yet according to Andrei Lankov, author of The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia, our perception of North Korea is one warped by overheated rhetoric. Lankov suggests that North Korea is anything but irrational. This is, after all, the last standing Stalinist regime and it is one that has survived against all the odds. What may appear to us in the West to be a country overseen by a mad and unpredictable regime is, in fact, a land that remains in absolute possession of its faculties. A political fossil it may be, but through a careful application of shrewd Machiavellian politics, North Korea has remained a land that is still able to extract support from other countries. It is unlikely to remain that way for long, but for now, despite appearances, North Korea seems to know exactly what it is doing.