Routledge Handbook of Contemporary North Korea

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary North Korea presents a comprehensive picture of contemporary North Korea, placed in historical context and set against the overlapping fields of politics, economy, culture, society and foreign relations. Spanning a period of significant transition for North Korea, this volume provides accurate analysis and applications of both historical and institutional perspectives.

The volume?s chapters are representative of the growth in North Korean studies that has occurred since the 1990s, in parallel with the growing maturity of the field in South Korea, as well as with far greater levels of access to North Korean sources. The volume is divided into five Parts, each reflecting an emergent area of debate and research:

• The political perspective
• The North Korean economy
• Foreign relations
• Society
• Culture

This is the first anthology of North Korean studies to demonstrate a clear understanding of North Korea as North Korea, as opposed to a dimly perceived and threatening rogue state. It features both Korean and non-Korean contributors, many working from primary source material. As such, this handbook will prove a valuable resource to students and scholars of Northeast Asian studies, modern Korean history and politics, and comparative politics more broadly.

Part 1: The political perspective 2. The evolution of the North Korean Socio-Political System, 1945-1994 3. Masters of survival: North Korean leadership in a hostile world 4. Political economy and ideology under Kim Jong-un Part 2: The North Korean economy 5. The structural transformation of the North Korean economic planning system 6. Between the markets and the state: North Korea’s fragile agriculture and food supply 7. North Korea’s interaction with the global economy Part 3: Foreign relations 8. ‘The enemies made this possible’: Sino-North Korean relations after 1948 9. Nuclear weapons and North Korean foreign policy 10. North Korea's nuclear diplomacy 11. Revival of an old friendship: Contemporary North Korea-Russia Relations 12. Once more with feeling the US-DPRK dialogue 1993-2020 Part 4: Society 13. Human rights and North Korea 14. The ‘market value’ of people in North Korea 15. Child mass mobilization in North Korea 16. The North Korean diaspora Part 5: Culture 17. The evolution of cultural policy and practice in North Korea, seen through the journal Chosŏn ŭmak (Korean music) 18. Love of the lover, love of the Leader: youth romance in North Korean fiction 19. Mass culture in the Kim Jong Un era: continuities and changes

Adrian Buzo has published widely on North Korean politics and history. The second edition of his The Guerilla Dynasty: Politics and Leadership in the DPRK was published by Routledge in 2018. He currently teaches at the University of New South Wales.