Reviews
Unveiling the North Korean Economy: A Roundtable Review
In this roundtable review, we take a magnifying glass to Unveiling the North Korean Economy by Kim Byung-yeon, to see whether the English language finally has the book on the North Korean economy that it needs.
A Roundtable Review of Dictators and their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence
Sheena Greitens examines the ways coercion is employed in authoritarian regimes in her new book, adding theoretical and empirical insights to the literature on authoritarian regime durability. Sino-NK reviews her contribution.
The Rise of the Anonymous Writer: A Review of Kim Yu-kyung’s “Place of Human Desecration”
Where Deborah Smith’s translation of “The Accusation” opened up Bandi’s short stories for the English-speaking world, there are several novels by defector writers that are only in Korean. “Place of Human Desecration” is one. Robert Lauler reviews it.
Divided Peninsula, Split Personalities: A Review of Hong Sang-hwa’s “The Intelligence Agent”
In a new review for Sino-NK, Robert Lauler once again turns his attention to Korean literature centered around national division, taking a magnifying glass to The Intelligence Agent, the latest novel by Hong Sang-hwa.