North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development is authored by Kevin Gray and Jong-Woon Lee and published by Cambridge University Press. It is reviewed for JCA by Jihyun Kim.
The book seeks to explain the “seemingly enigmatic juxtaposition of North Korea’s economic struggle amidst its growing military prowess by conducting a historically informed analysis of the country’s development-
geopolitics nexus.” It does this with attention to three key events: colonialism, the Cold War, and the rise of China. The authors address, as they put it, the trajectory of North Korea’s “rise, collapse, and tentative recovery amidst ongoing socio-economic transformation in the context of a politically unreformed socialist state and increasingly adverse external environment.” In addition, Gray and Lee evaluate existing scholarship on North Korea including liberal economic and dependency approaches, discussing their shortcomings “in providing a comprehensive answer to the puzzle of North Korean development…”.
Kim describes the book as a “thought-provoking and deeply researched volume” and says it “is a valuable addition to the field.”
JCA 