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Useful Idiot: A Review of Bruce Cumings' North Korea: Another Country (Anders Lewis, Front Page)

Cumings believes that North Korea is a misunderstood land. Its leaders are not dangerous megalomaniacs. Rather, DPRK leaders have always been pragmatic and nationalistic. During the Cold War, they avoided dependence on the Soviet Union, created a productive economy, and improved living standards. The society they created is impressive. North Korea’s streets are clean, its people humble, and crime is almost non-existent. Kim Il Sung, the father of North Korean communism, was a "a classic Robin Hood figure" who cared deeply for his people. North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong Il, is "not the playboy, womanizer, drunk, and mentally deranged fanatic ‘Dr. Evil’ of our press." Instead he is a "homebody who doesn’t socialize much, doesn’t drink much, and works at home in his pajamas." The Dear Leader also loves to tinker with music boxes, watch James Bond movies, and play Super Mario video games. The cover of Cumings’s book neatly summarizes his views. On it is a photograph of a group of uniformed women performing some type of dramatic production for North Korean soldiers. With smoke in the background, one woman stands tall and points a gun to the horizon. Coming out of the gun is a red flag. Everyone looks on in awe. The image implies that under communism, North Korea’s future - though not without struggle - is bright.

Of course it's bright--thermonuclear explosions are brilliant.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 30, 2003 9:51 AM