Put This Book on Your List
North Korea expert Peter Hayes – the executive director of the research group Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development – described the novel as ”the best unclassified account of how North Korea works and why it has survived all these years when the rest of the communist world capitulated to the global market a decade ago.””This novel should be required bedtime reading for President Bush and his national security team,” Hayes said.
And that was precisely the point of writing the book, according to the author – whose name is not really ”James Church.” That is a pseudonym for what the book jacket describes as ”a former Western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia” who ”has wandered through Korea for years.”
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In an interview, Church said he was frustrated by the limitations of the intelligence reports he wrote. He was often required to frame any information through the moral lens of Western society, which regards North Korea as one of the world’s most repressive regimes.
In the academic or intelligence world, an analyst who wrote about North Korea without the standard ”moral bubble” immediately would be accused of being blind to the ”awfulness of the place,” Church said. ”You don’t have to do that in a mystery story.” [link]
The book is “,” by James Church.
Though I haven’t read “Corpse” yet, if I had to take a stab in the dark I would say this is James Young the same guy who wrote “Eye on Korea.” I don’t think intelligence officer would accurately describe him, however. Though as the attache he would have had many similar functions. He was also the first FAO (foreign area officer) to specialize in Korea. The other reason I think it might be him is that few military types get access to North Korea, and certainly not intel types. Undercover up North is not exactly an option for most of us. Young is the only one I know of with the requisite intel background and exposure to North Korean society. He is also known to intimate his displeasure over how the US intelligence structure and diplomatic corps approach the study of North Korean society, reflecting western value judgments on the leadership to all of North Korean society. While of course it might not be him I would be very surprised if it’s not a Korea FAO, though the more recent ones I know of would surprise me.
Just finished reading “A Corpse in the Koryo” – very good book, I don’t typically read mystery novels. I see that a second Inspector O novel is out called “Hidden Moon” and a third one coming out in November called “Bamboo and Blood”. I’ll probably add those to my wish list.