Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev era : Soviet-DPRK relations and the roots of North Korean despotism, 1953-1964
"Concentrating on the years 1953-64, this history describes how North Korea became more despotic even as other Communist countries underwent de-Stalinization. The author's principal new source is the Hungarian diplomatic archives, which contain extensive reporting on Kim Il Sung and North Korea. This book is informed by research on the period in the Soviet and Eastern European archives and by recently published scholarship." "Much of the story surrounds Kim Il Sung: his Korean nationalism and eagerness for Korean autarky; his efforts to balance the need for foreign aid and his hope for an independent foreign policy; and what seems to be his good sense of timing in doing in internal rivals without attracting Soviet retaliation. Through a series of comparisons not only with the USSR but also with Albania, Romania, Yugoslavia, China, and Vietnam, the author highlights unique features of North Korean communism during the period. Szalontai covers ongoing effects of Japanese colonization, the experiences of diverse Korean factions during World War II, and the weakness of the Communist Part in South Korea."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2005
Woodrow Wilson Center Press ; Stanford University Press, Washington, D.C., Stanford, Calif., ©2005
xxiii, 343 pages ; 24 cm.
9780804753227, 0804753229
59098887