North Korea in 100 Facts

Ruth Ann Monti

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781445686974
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Korean History
• Index: History

'Great ideology creates great times.' Kim Jong-il (1942–2011) Where to start with this mysterious, sometimes terrifying country? Perhaps with some hard facts - which are notoriously difficult to come by. Ruth Ann Monti teases out the truth about this dictatorship to provide an illuminating insight into a society that might just as well be in outer space for most in the West. Did you know, for instance, that high school students are required to complete an 81-hour course on current leader Kim Jong-un? Or that everyone must wear a Kim badge at all times? Even Mao didn't demand that. How about the fact that Kim Jong-un's father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, kidnapped two of South Korea's film industry giants and made seven films with them – including a Socialist version of Godzilla? The 100 facts don't all make grim reading: for instance, North Koreans like to relax with a favourite tipple - but make theirs from acorns. More importantly, in 2012 North Korean archaeologists discovered a unicorn lair… This book highlights the hidden reality and strange truths about this much-misunderstood country.

Table of contents

• Cover
• 1. North Korea Is a Successful Hereditary Dictatorship
• 2. The Korean Peninsula Was Occupied by Japan in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
• 3. Kim Il-sung Grew Up with Protestant Influences and Support
• 4. Kim Il-sung Distrusted China and the USSR
• 5. Cho Man-sik Might Have Led One Korea
• 6. Kim Il-sung Flattered the Soviets into Naming Him North Korea’s Leader
• 7. Everyone Wanted a War but Only Kim Wanted to Fight
• 8. The USSR and China Made North Korea Disappear for a Day
• 9. The US Dropped So Many Bombs on North Korea Even General MacArthur Was Horrified
• 10. North Korea’s Youngest Pilot during the Korean War Defected Shortly after the Truce
• 11. ‘Operation Moolah’ Failed to Persuade Russians and North Koreans to Defect during the Korean War
• 12. China Contributed the Bulk of Reconstruction Support for North Korea
• 13. North Korea Is in a Never-ending War
• 14. North Korea Bombed a South Korean Airliner in an Attempt to Halt the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games
• 15. The DMZ Is the Most Heavily Guarded Border in the World
• 16. North Korea’s Border Town Is a Potemkin Village
• 17. North Korea’s Army Is One of the Largest in the World
• 18. North Korea May Have as Many as Sixty Nuclear Bombs
• 19. The Influence of Confucianism Helps Keep North Korea’s Dictatorship Intact
• 20. North Korea Is a Juche Machine
• 21. Five US Soldiers Have Defected to North Korea
• 22. North Koreans Speak a Purer and More Violent Form of the Korean Language
• 23. Everyone in North Korea Belongs to an Inminban That Focuses on Cleaning, Spying and Self-criticism
• 24. North Koreans Are Ranked in Fifty-one Social Categories
• 25. North Korea’s Economy Was Killed by Ideology
• 26. North Koreans Are Required to Wear Loyalty Badges Portraying the First Two Kims
• 27. There’s a Collectors’ Market for North Korean Loyalty Badges
• 28. North Korea Keeps Its Own Calendar but Changed Its Time Zone to Match the South’s
• 29. North Korea Is a Major Dealer in Banned and Counterfeit Drugs
• 30. The North Korean Government Is a Real Gangsta’s Paradise
• 31. Room 39 Is Both Official and Illicit
• 32. North Korean Gangs Focus on Smuggling
• 33. North Korea Has Limited Internet
• 34. North Korea’s Friend Zone Is Shrinking
• 35. North Korea Is Growing Its Technology Sector
• 36. Mobile Phones Are Far More Common in North Korea than Landlines
• 37. North Korea Has Two, Maybe Three, Car Manufacturers
• 38. North Korea Has Limited Television Programming
• 39. Famine Killed as Many as 3.5 Million North Koreans in the 1990s
• 40. Much of the Food Aid Delivered to North Korea Disappeared
• 41. North Korea May Be Undergoing Another Famine
• 42. Stroke and Cardiovascular Disease Kill More than One-Third of North Koreans
• 43. Famine Changed North Korean Society and Made Women the Chief Breadwinners
• 44. The Famine Created a New Class of Orphans
• 45. Before the Famine, North Korea Took Pretty Good Care of Its Citizens
• 46. Just 3 Million People Are Permitted to Live in Pyongyang
• 47. Pyongyang Is for Fashionistas!
• 48. Hair Styles Are Strictly Limited in North Korea and No One Can Have Kim Jong-un’s Style
• 49. Kim Il-sung’s First Marriage was Probably for Love
• 50. Kim Il-sung’s Second Wife Was the First North Korean Woman to Hold Real Power
• 51. Kim Il-sung Met with the Leader of a Cult Church Years before the Sunshine Policy
• 52. The Founder of Hyundai Delivered ‘Unification Cows’ to North Korea
• 53. Kim Jong-il May Have Stressed His Father into a Heart Attack
• 54. The Kims Purge Advisors, Appointees, and Family
• 55. There Have Been Assassination Attempts on the Kims
• 56. Kim Jong-il Took Hedonism to New Levels
• 57. Kim Jong-il’s Progeny Are Numerous
• 58. Kim Jong-il Saw Himself as a Master Filmmaker
• 59. Kim Jong-il Kidnapped a South Korean Director and Actress Who Later Defected to the United States
• 60. Kim Made Seven Films with His South Korean Prisoners
• 61. Kim Jong-il Had a Lot of Alcohol-related Health Problems
• 62. Kim Jong-il Jumped Over Two Older Sons to Anoint Kim Jong-un His Heir
• 63. Kim Jong-un Had His Older Half-brother Murdered
• 64. North Korea Has One of the World’s Worst Human Rights Records
• 65. There Are Four Kinds of Prison in North Korea
• 66. Around 1 Per Cent of All North Koreans Are in Prison, Including Descendants of Earlier Prisoners
• 67. Thousands of North Koreans Have Defected to Other Countries
• 68. Many North Korean Women Who Escape to China Live Underground as ‘Wives’ to Chinese Men
• 69. Many Neighbouring Countries Return North Korean Refugees
• 70. North Korea Has Regularly Kidnapped Citizens of Japan and South Korea
• 71. The North Korean Government Outsources Its People to Other Nations for Cheap Labour
• 72. South Korea May Have Kidnapped North Koreans Working in China
• 73. Some Defectors Return to North Korea
• 74. North Korea Does Not Report Its Gross Domestic Product
• 75. South Korea Operated a Joint Industrial District with North Korea
• 76. North Korea’s Constitution Protects Religious Freedom
• 77. One of North Korea’s Elite Universities Is Run by Evangelical Christians
• 78. North Korean Primary Schools Exist to Reinforce the Kims’ Rule and Are Not Free
• 79. Kim Jong-un Attended Foreign Schools in Switzerland
• 80. Kim Jong-un Has Had a Long-standing Bromance with Basketball Player Dennis Rodman
• 81. North Korea Holds Elections Every Five Years
• 82. Many North Koreans Believe the Kims Are Gods
• 83. Kim Jong-un Harnesses Nostalgia for His Grandfather’s Era
• 84. Kim Jong-un’s Presence Moves North Koreans to Tears
• 85. Traffic Ladies May Be More Iconic than the Kims
• 86. Kim Jong-un Lives a Seriously Unhealthy Lifestyle
• 87. Kim Jong-un Personally Selects Members of North Korea’s Official All-female Pop Group
• 88. North Korean Culture Fosters Lying
• 89. North Korean Grief over the Kims’ Deaths Was Weirdly Competitive
• 90. Kim Jong-un’s March 2018 Trip to Beijing Was His First International Trip as Supreme Leader
• 91. No One Knows When Kim Jong-un Married Ri Sol-ju
• 92. North Korean Leaders Travel in a Special Bulletproof Train
• 93. Plastic Surgery is Common among the Higher Songbun
• 94. North Koreans Collect Their Faeces to Contribute to an Important National Resource
• 95. Twins and Triplets in North Korea Are Raised Away from Their Families
• 96. North Korean Scientists Found a Unicorn Lair
• 97. Outsiders Conduct Air Drops of DVDs, Bibles, and Food Wrappers into North Korea
• 98. Grain Is Scarce in North Korea, so Alcohol is Made from Acorns
• 99. Even North Korea Has a Housing Market
• 100. The US–North Korean Summit Laid Out ‘Baby Steps’