The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future

by Victor Cha

Overview

From a seasoned advisor, “a meaty, fast-paced portrait of North Korean society, economy, politics and foreign policy” (Foreign Affairs).
 
In The Impossible State, international-policy expert and former Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on this controversial and isolated country, providing the best look yet at North Korea’s history, the rise of the Kim family dynasty, and the obsessive personality cult that empowers them. He illuminates the repressive regime's complex economy and culture, its appalling record of human-rights abuses, and its belligerent relationship with the United States, and analyzes the regime’s major security issues—from the seemingly endless war with its southern neighbor to its frightening nuclear ambitions—all in light of the destabilizing effects of Kim Jong-il's death and the pivotal and disquieting transition of power from tyrannical father to inexperienced son.
 
How this enigmatic nation-state—one that regularly violates its own citizens’ inalienable rights and has suffered famine, global economic sanctions, a collapsed economy, and near total isolation from the rest of the world—has continued to survive has long been a question that preoccupies the West. Cha reveals a land of contradictions, and delves into the ideology that leads an oppressed, starving populace to cling so fiercely to its failed leadership.
 
With rare personal anecdotes from the author’s time in Pyongyang and his tenure as an adviser in the White House, this authoritative, accessible, “engrossing” history (The Economist) offers much-needed understanding of the country’s veiled past and uncertain future.
 
“An up-close, insightful portrait.” —The Washington Post
 
“An eye-opening view of the closed, repressive dictatorship of North Korea. . . . A useful, pertinent work for understanding the human story behind the headlines.” —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062200150
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/18/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	557
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Victor Cha served in the White House as Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council from 2004 to 2007. He currently holds the D. S. Song-KF Chair in Government and Asian Studies at Georgetown University and is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

A Note on the Korean Text ix

Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations xi

1 Contradictions 1

2 The Best Days 19

3 All in the Family 64

4 Five Bad Decisions 110

5 The Worst Place on Earth 162

6 The Logic of Deterrence 212

7 Complete, Verifiable, and Irreversible Dismantlement (CVID) 247

8 Neighbors 315

9 Approaching Unification 386

10 The End is Near 427

Acknowledgments 465

Notes 469

Index 507

What People are Saying About This

Bob Schieffer

“Ask those who deal with national security what worries them most and at the top of the list or near it you’ll always find North Korea, a place about which we know little to nothing. That’s why Victor Cha’s book is so valuable.”

Andrea Mitchell

“The Impossible State is provocative, frightening, and never more relevant than today as an untested new leader takes charge of the world’s most unpredictable nuclear power.”

Gideon Rose

“A powerful portrait of one of the world’s most troubled and troublesome countries [and] a fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of recent American foreign policy by a leading official. . . . A must-read combination for anybody interested in Korea, east Asia, or global security more generally.”

Editorial Reviews

An up-close, insightful portrait. . . . The Impossible State is a clearheaded, bold examination of North Korea and its future.” — Washington Post

“Cha demonstrates an intimate familiarity with the regime’s contradictions. . . . The thesis is clear: the world’s most closed-off state needs to open up to survive, but breaking its hermetic seal may well precipitate its demise.” — The New Yorker

“A meaty, fast-paced portrait of North Korean society, economy, politics, and foreign policy by an expert who has studied the regime as a scholar and interacted with its officials.” — Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher

An up-close, insightful portrait. . . . The Impossible State is a clearheaded, bold examination of North Korea and its future.

Washington Post

Cha demonstrates an intimate familiarity with the regime’s contradictions. . . . The thesis is clear: the world’s most closed-off state needs to open up to survive, but breaking its hermetic seal may well precipitate its demise.

The New Yorker

A meaty, fast-paced portrait of North Korean society, economy, politics, and foreign policy by an expert who has studied the regime as a scholar and interacted with its officials.

Foreign Affairs

Cha demonstrates an intimate familiarity with the regime’s contradictions. . . . The thesis is clear: the world’s most closed-off state needs to open up to survive, but breaking its hermetic seal may well precipitate its demise.

The New Yorker

An up-close, insightful portrait. . . . The Impossible State is a clearheaded, bold examination of North Korea and its future.

Washington Post

The Impossible State is 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

Ask those who deal with national security what worries them most and at the top of the list or near it you’ll always find North Korea, a place about which we know little to nothing. That’s why Victor Cha’s book is so valuable.

Bob Schieffer

Over the past two decades, North Korea has survived despite abandonment by its Soviet benefactors, the death of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, economic collapse, and massive starvation. This reclusive state found a way to endure these difficulties while simultaneously developing nuclear weapons. To explain how this happened, Cha (government & Asian studies, Georgetown Univ.; Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia) thoroughly examines North Korea's history, ideology, economics, society, and foreign relations. Additionally, Cha argues that North Korea's government will soon collapse because of foreign and domestic pressures, accelerated by the recent death of Kim Jong Il. The regime's demise in the next few years, he says, will create serious challenges for northeast Asia and the United States. Cha supports his claims with a mix of evidence and speculation based on his experience as the former director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration. VERDICT This is essential reading for all North Korea watchers. Cha merges his analysis with personal stories from his experiences as a negotiator in the Six-Party Talks, which makes this an informative and enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in the topic.—Joshua Wallace, South Texas Coll. Lib., McAllen

Library Journal

From the former director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, an eye-opening view of the closed, repressive dictatorship of North Korea. Cha (Foreign Service/Georgetown Univ.; Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia, 2008, etc.) first visited North Korea during George W. Bush's second term with then-governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson to try to defuse nuclear-testing tensions. The author was amazed at the chasm between party haves and everybody else, confirming all that he knew about the authoritarian country. Cha aims to get at some of the pressing questions since Kim Jong-il's death and the succession of the utterly unknown younger son, Kim Jong-un—e.g., what happened to this once-vigorous dictatorship, and why does the populace do nothing about it? How can the West know so little about what really goes on there? For Cha, the key that unlocked the regime's secrets was its nostalgia for the good old days of the 1950s and '60s, when China and the Soviet Union were bolstering North Korean industry and military, while the South was still an agrarian backwater. American aggression during the Korean War left a lasting bitterness, and while the South was grappling with American ambivalence toward its leaders, the North under Kim Il-sung embraced the ideology of juche, or self-reliance, and the cult of the Great Leader. As a result, writes Cha, the North Koreans are simply too oppressed to revolt—not to mention the devastating effects from "Olympic envy" of trying to catch up to Seoul's 1988 hosting, and the terrible famine of the mid '90s. The author looks closely at the Kim family, the terrible economic decisions that plunged the country into poverty, the shocking gulag system, its paranoid nuclear proliferation program and the tenuous relations with South Korea. A useful, pertinent work for understanding the human story behind the headlines.

Kirkus Reviews