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The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters |  | Author: B.R. Myers
Publisher: Melville House
Category: Book
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 5191
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 7.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1933633913
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.375095193
EAN: 9781933633916
ASIN: 1933633913
Publication Date: January 26, 2010
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Product Description
Understanding North Korea through its propaganda
What do the North Koreans really believe? How do they see themselves and the world around them?
Here B.R. Myers, a North Korea analyst and a contributing editor of The Atlantic, presents the first full-length study of the North Korean worldview. Drawing on extensive research into the regime’s domestic propaganda, including films, romance novels and other artifacts of the personality cult, Myers analyzes each of the country’s official myths in turn—from the notion of Koreans’ unique moral purity, to the myth of an America quaking in terror of “the Iron General.” In a concise but groundbreaking historical section, Myers also traces the origins of this official culture back to the Japanese fascist thought in which North Korea’s first ideologues were schooled.
What emerges is a regime completely unlike the West’s perception of it. This is neither a bastion of Stalinism nor a Confucian patriarchy, but a paranoid nationalist, “military-first” state on the far right of the ideological spectrum.
Since popular support for the North Korean regime now derives almost exclusively from pride in North Korean military might, Pyongyang can neither be cajoled nor bullied into giving up its nuclear program. The implications for US foreign policy—which has hitherto treated North Korea as the last outpost of the Cold War—are as obvious as they are troubling. With North Korea now calling for a “blood reckoning” with the “Yankee jackals,” Myers’s unprecedented analysis could not be more timely.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
 A Kingdom of Slaves, A Refuge of Dragons February 2, 2010
William Alexander (Spartanburg, SC)
51 out of 53 found this review helpful
I knew that B. R. Myers was a contributing editor, I believe, for "The Atlantic," my favorite periodical. I had no idea that he was also a student of the Korean Peninsula, especially the "Hermit Kingdom" north of the 38th parallel. Christopher Hitchens reviewed this book for "Slate" today, and after catching it this morning, I drove to my local Barnes & Noble in the vague hope they might have a copy. I was shocked that they had a copy in stock. And I was not able to put this fascinating book down.
Myers objective is, by explaining North Korea in the roots of its modern past, to try to make some form recommendations as to how the world community can deal with this strange and blinkered land. His ultimate conclusion is, unfortunately, rather gloomy, arguing essentially that containment and "benevolent neglect" are the only methods to deploy against a regime that, by its own self-definition, is as fixed and unchangeable as a steel and cement mold. All this short of actual military confrontation no one exterior to North Korea wants.
But, this is not the best part of the book. Myers advances and, I think, proves that North Korea is purely a product of its all-pervasive propaganda which literally soaks every aspect of daily life, twenty-four seven, learned in part from the brutal occupation tactics of the Japanese between 1905-1945. And this propaganda supports the two pillars of this Orwellian moonscape, the military and the Kim clan, arguably the most successful crime family since the fictional Corleones. North Korea is no longer properly understood as a "communist" society. Indeed, the very word was removed from the latest Constitution in favor of the long-evolving bogus governmental policy of "Juche," the military elites celebrated as a class in support of a paranoid "imperial family" who have gone to absurd lengths to soldify their dread power over a population kept in absolute, deliberate ignorance of the world outside; even going to far as to use low-level malnutrition as a method of social control. Myers uses mutitudinous examples of past and contemporary North Korean governmental propaganda to illustrate the depths to which this control is exercised. And the consistent keys struck over and over are: (a) absolute fear of the "outside," especially South Korea, Japan, the United States, and even China to a limited extent; (b) the fostering of a divine cult around the ruling family (even suggesting the future "quasi-resurrection" of the dynastic founder); (c) glorification of the military establishment, including the nuclear programme as nationalist expression; and (d) institutionalized racism that also extendes into eugenic practices to keep the Korean race "pure." And all this is overlaid with a perverse form of warped Confucianism where deference to authority is posited as the highest of social aspirations. Put in radically simpler terms, North Korea is best understood less as nation-state than religious cult where the "Dark Other" is the rest of the earth itself.
I also note that Myers descriptive prose is very powerful, but made more so by ample visual examples in the book which are not "filler" but artfully chosen to illustrate main points. Excellent visual and written editing all the way around.
I admit that using propaganda alone as a basis for historical conclusions is usually a spotty exercise. But in a nation where that propaganda is the essence of the state and the people its creations from cradle to grave, I think the basis far more firm than, say, it would be in a discussion of modern China, for example, or Soviet-era Roumania. On this sure footing, and backed by what is obviously years of work and scholarship, Myers makes a complelling case that any dealings with North Korea must be informed by an understanding of how it sees itself, as horrible that vision may be.
Recommended without reservation, especially to people interested in political science, cultural history, and East Asian Studies.
The Best Book Ever Written on North Korea February 28, 2010
S. A. Wayman (APO, AP United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the rarest of books: a genuinely original analysis that demolishes most of what we thought we knew about something, in this case North Korea. For decades, virtually all of us have blithely assumed that North Korea's ideology was Juche, Stalinism, Confucianism, or some combination thereof. Myers makes a meticulously researched, closely reasoned argument that it is none of these things. On the contrary, the DPRK is an ethno-centric nationalist state led by a beloved, androgynous Parent Leader. In Pyongyang's world view, Koreans are a pure, childlike race, virtually incapable of sin, or of surviving in a world of vicious foreigners. Thankfully, the Great Leader -- the mother-like Kim Il Sung -- is there to protect them, followed by the even more maternal Kim Jong Il. These innocent people are constantly threatened, of course, by those vicious, cowardly, hook-nosed Americans, who must be resisted at all costs. This analysis is of great value in itself, but it also has important policy implications, not the least of which is that since the Americans are the mortal enemies of the Korean people, genuine compromise with them on something like the DPRK's nuclear programs is unthinkable.
Until recently, virtually the only books available in English on North Korea (or even South Korea) were the tendentious, self-indulgent polemics written by Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago. Cumings was largely discredited long ago, and Myers finishes the job. It is hard to imagine he will ever be taken seriously again. Rather, for anyone involved in international relations or Asian affairs, "The Cleanest Race" is quite simply the best book ever written on North Korea, and, for as long as that wretched place endures, this book will be the definitive study of the regime and the starting point for all analysis of the DPRK.
I have a couple complaints: many of the North Korean propaganda pictures Myers uses to support his argument are so small one can barely make them out, and, incredibly for such an otherwise serious piece of analysis, this book contains no index. (Note to Myers: Next time, consider another publisher.) Perhaps these problems will be addressed in the next edition. But these are mere quibbles. All that matters is this: if your work involves East Asia or international relations, stop reading and order this book. Do it now. And resume reading the minute "The Cleanest Race" arrives.
Could 'Our Great Mother' be evil? February 13, 2010
Theodore A. Rushton (PHOENIX, Arizona United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Fascinating, if true.
Frightening, because there's no good reason to suspect it's not true. Other reviewers emphasize the "personality cult" of Kim Il Sung and his descendants; may I suggest the current rulers are trying to create a "god cult" similar to the Egyptian Pharaohs.
Similar to Pharaonic Egypt, there is a constant emphasis on unification of the two lands; like the Pharaohs, Our Great Mother makes 'Horus-procession' tours of North Korea; the governing philosophy portrays their neighbours as constant enemies; they have a sacred duty to defend their "world order" against the hostile powers of chaos; and state dogma emphasizes the military and creative role of Dear Parent.
At this rate, some day North Korea will get a Moses to lead an Exodus to the nearest shopping mall "of milk, honey, TV sets amd washing machines" in China or Seoul.
It may well be that nuclear weapons and ICBMs are the 'Great Pyramid' of Parent Leader. Except for bolstering the image of Dear Leader, nuclear weapons are as useless as the original pyramids. Like the pyramids, perhaps the ICBMs and nuclear weapons will someday be a quaint tourist attraction.
Miroslav Verner in 'The Pyramids' (ISBN 0-8021-3935-3) describes the Egyptian concept "of the state as an expression of the divine will and the center of the harmonious and ordered world created by the gods." Myers doesn't use the same language, but he leaves the same impression of official attitudes in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (In short, it makes the claim of "American Exceptionalism" seem like an exercise in undue modesty.)
Communism collapsed because it failed to deliver on its promise of the great material riches of a Workers' Paradise. In the DPRK, Dear Parent uses the opposite approach -- you are poor because you are pure. Thus, famine is a virtue; and American relief shipments of food are a tribute honouring that virtue.
Bizarre? The only unexplained anomaly is why Dear Parent is pleasantly plump. Could it be Our Great Mother is truly evil?
Important Insights - February 3, 2010
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
"The Cleanest Race" is a sometimes muddled and biased, but ultimately useful effort to explain North Korea's internal and foreign policies. Myers states that his conclusions are the result of researching the nation's domestic propaganda agenda, and believes the 'Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea' (DPRK) is a "paranoid nationalist, 'military-first' far-right state whose popular support now derives mostly from pride in its military might." Ergo, it cannot be pressured or cajoled to give up its nuclear program.
Continuing, Myers believes that this ideology has generally enjoyed the support of the North Korean people . . . "without a ubiquitous police presence or a fortified northern border" (with China). That conclusion is a serious stretch - most other accounts report a strong secret police environment in which the continually indoctrinated general populace are encouraged and rewarded for reporting disloyal acts of fellow citizens. Further, while its northern border with China is lightly patrolled, potential emigres are strongly deterred by frequent Chinese sweeps that capture and return those who successfully cross over. Once returned, they face severe punishment in North Korea. Myers continues, with "about half of 'economic migrants' voluntarily return," and "the rest remain fervent admirers of Kim Il Sung" - patent nonsense, per other sources. Myers also defies reality by contending that the North Korean doctrine of 'Juche' is confusing, not understandable, and not adhered to, when most other sources have no problems contending it refers to making the nation's destructive effort to be internally self-sufficient. Finally, his several citations of Bruce Cummings without qualification is unnerving because that author's scholarship on Korea has been challenged by a number of academic critics, and his work has stirred up more controversy than that of most other historians (Wikipedia).
Returning to reality, Myers says that North Korea presents itself to the world as a misunderstood country seeking integration into the international community, while to its own citizens it presents itself as a state dictating conditions to groveling U.N. (and U.S.) officials, and keeping its enemies in constant fear of ballistic retribution. Further, the DPRK has never given up its dream of fomenting a nationalist revolution in 'south Korea.'
"A History of North Korean Official Culture - 1910-" forms Part I of Myers' book. Japan invaded Korea in 1905, and stayed 40 years until forced out after WWII. Leader Kim Il Sung, contrary to state-generated myth, sat out WWII in the U.S.S.R., but had been a commander with Mao in China's earlier battle with Japan. (Sidelight - Kim's brother interpreted for the Japanese.) Myers also asserts that Kim had read little before being put in charge by the Soviets. Tens of thousands of North Koreans fled to China during the 1995-97 famine, eroding the information embargo that allowed the DPRK to falsely claim that South Korea was more impoverished. The DPRK then told its citizens that the reason South Korea had a higher standard of living was because of the North's 'military-first' policy which repeatedly has forced other nations to back down. South Koreans were also reported to be deeply unhappy about defilement by the presence of foreigners, and wanting to join with the DPRK. Myers believes that it is essential that North Korean citizens believe it is the better Korea, or they will decide that the South is better able to rule the entire peninsula. Therefore, "a decade of generous and unconditional aid from South Korea has not generated even a modicum of good will from North Korea."
Friendly nations (eg. Laos) are described to DPRK nationals as 'tributary' - hosting Juche study conferences to learn from North Korea, presenting eulogies to the Leader, and congratulating the DPRK on important anniversaries. China, an exception, is described more as a partner. Nonetheless, pregnant returnees from China undergo forced abortions to avoid 'contaminating the blood-line.' Similarly, it is also 'necessary' to keep foreigners away from residents in Pyongyang, its capital and showcase city - hence, separate hotels, eating facilities, buses, and 'minders' prevent mingling.
U.S. (inherently evil) aid is rationalized to North Koreans as compensation for economic blockades, etc. Myers says the government doesn't talk about the U.S. "bombing North Korea flat" because this would undermine the Leader's reputed power; yet, somehow, Myers believes it is still logical for North Korea to speak of alleged atrocities committed by American foot-soldiers.
Bottom-Line: Much of "The Cleanest Race" is taken up with a mystical, pointless effort to classify North Korea and its leadership as masculine or feminine, and still more by academic quibbling over whether its historical background is Confucianism, Stalinism, nationalism, or pre-war Japanese Fascism. Myers also contends that race, not socialism, is key to North Korean ideology - unsubstantiable given government control of production, commerce, and pay. (However, claiming North Korean ideology is a mix of race AND socialism is credible.) Myers also focuses on what the regime tells its own citizens, and makes a good case for two key contentions: 1)If a decade of South Korean aid to North Korea has brought no gratitude, the U.S. hoping to ingratiate itself through aid is hopeless - it will simply become evidence of our subservience. 2)Given the constant political indoctrination at all levels, it makes little sense to think that Leader Kim (or successor) could demilitarize to any extent without risking a military coup.
On the other hand, who would have thought Deng Xiaoping, 'three time loser' under Chairman Mao, would rise after Mao's death and lead China through such dramatic foreign policy and internal reversals that it became a self-sufficient economic powerhouse in only three decades?
The Lies They Tell Themselves... February 14, 2010
D. S. Thurlow (Alaska)
2009's "The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters" is author B.R. Meyers' thought-provoking survey of North Korean propaganda. In a highly readable and lavishly illustrated book, Meyers provides some useful insights into the lies North Koreans tell themselves, and the potential implications of those lies for US policy-makers.
At the core of the book is Meyers' thoughtful examination of decades of North Korean propaganda, from its founding by Kim Il Sung in 1945 right up to 2009 reports of Kim Jong Il's ill-health, concerns about a possible succession crisis, and relations with the US. Meyers' thesis is that the ideological basis of the North Korean state is paranoid rascist nationalism. He argues that outsider observers who see North Korea as the last Stalinist state or as an amalgam of Confuscism and Socialism may misunderstand Pyongyang's motives and actions. His conclusions bode poorly for current denuclearization talks with Pyongyang.
Propaganda is notoriously difficult to disect from the outside, especially when a pragmatic state plays one theme to its citizens and another to its enemies. Experienced observers of North Korea may therefore find much of interest in the book without necessarily agreeing with the author's every conclusion. "The Cleanest Race" is highly recommended to students of the Pyongyang regime as an insightful look at a closed society.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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