Becoming Kim Jong Un: Understanding North Koreas Young Dictator

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The young dictator comes under close scrutiny in this intelligent account'Sunday Times The mysterious, brutal, and calculating Kim Jong Un has risen to become the unchallenged dictator of a nuclear rogue state. He now possesses weaponry capable of threatening America and its allies, and his actions have already significantly changed global politics. Its believed that Kim Jong Un is in his thirties, only a few years into what will likely be decades of leadership. He is in the news almost every day, and yet we stillknow almost nothing about him and how he became the supreme leader of the hermit kingdom. Former CIA analyst and North Korea expert Jung H. Pak reveals the explosive story of Kim Jong Ils third son: the spoilt and impetuous child, the mediocre student, the ruthless murderer, the shrewd grand strategist.

Reviews

Excellent Former CIA analyst Jung H. Pak cuts through the regimes opacity and the fog of gossip.

* Los Angeles Times *

Jung H. Pak has managed to shed more light on the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, than virtually anyone An important book, both for the professional expert and for those who simply want to gain insight into the hermit kingdom and its enigmatic leader.

-- James Clapper, former US Director of National Intelligence

The young dictator comes under close scrutiny in this intelligent account.

* Sunday Times *

[Becoming Kim Jong Un] could be the most definitive account of North Koreas supreme leader.

* Newsweek *

[An] expert assessment An insightful analysis of perhaps the worlds most dangerous dystopia.

* Kirkus Reviews *

How did a lazy, basketball-loving kid become the world's shrewdest tyrant by the age of twenty-six Jung H. Pak's brilliant analysis strips away Kim's cult, bluster, and caricature to reveal a mind that is quite chillingly rational, with a rat-like cunning for out-smarting his enemies, be they close family members or nuclear-armed states. Easily the most insightful portrait of the man behind the propaganda.

-- D. B. John, author of Star of the North

Jung Pak exudes the authority and glamour of the spook.

* The Times *

Jung H. Paks sober but absorbing portrait of North Koreas leader should be the starting point for any scholar, journalist, or policymaker trying to make sense of the most dangerous regime on earth. Pak ties together biography, national security analysis, and policy prescription with the precision one would expect from a scholar and former intelligence officer.

-- Michael J. Green, former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush, and director of Asian studies at Georgetown University

Becoming Kim Jong Un is the most complete account to date of a dictator who has too often been caricatured by the public. Highly readable, thoughtful, and dispassionate, this book offers important insights into an enigmatic leader who will shape the destiny of not only the Korean Peninsula but of the Northeast Asian region and the world. Its the next best thing to receiving a top-secret CIA briefing.

-- Sue Mi Terry, former CIA analyst and former Korea director at the National Security Council

Cogently and concisely treating a broad sweep of issues central to North Korea, Dr Pak makes an essential contribution to the collective understanding of one of the worlds most dangerous and complex problems. It is must-read for the expert and casual observer alike.

-- Mark Lippert, former US ambassador to South Korea and Trustee, The Asia Foundation

Author Bio

Jung H. Pakisa Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. She was previously a senior analyst for Korea at the CIA.She received her PhD from Columbia University and studied in South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar.