The Impossible State North Korea, Past and Future

Engrossing... It offers perhaps the best recent one-volume account of North Korea's history, economics and foreign relations The Economist

"Engrossing... It offers perhaps the best recent one-volume account of North Korea's history, economics and foreign relations" The Economist "[This] excellent, comprehensive book explains as much as it is possible to explain the nature of this 'impossible state', how it has developed under the Kim dynasty and why it endures as a major thorn in the side of the global community" -- Jonathan Fenby The Times "This scrupulously researched account provides an alarming insight into how a long-running nightmare for North Koreans could soon become a geopolitical crisis for the rest of us" -- Stephen Robinson Sunday Times "He uses his first-hand and often surreal experiences of dealing with North Korean officialdom to telling effect in the book. But Cha is also a scholar of Korean and Asian affairs, so can take a historical view of the North Korean problem and set it in its wider international context. [An] impressive analysis" -- Richard Cockett Literary Review "Provocative, frightening, and never more relevant than today as an untested new leader takes charge of the world's most unpredictable nuclear power" -- Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent