From Booklist
Under different circumstances, North Korea could be the subject of a Marx Brothers satire, with the elements of a pompous, ego-driven patriarch, a worshipful population, and a general aura of fantasy and illusion. But North Korea has a superbly equipped million-man army and an expanding nuclear weapons program. So this comprehensive examination of this totalitarian society and the two men who have dominated it is often terrifying. For a quarter century, Martin has covered North Korea while working for the Baltimore Sun, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. Using newly available material from Russian and Chinese sources, Martin offers surprising insights into the career and character of both Kim Il-Sung and his son, Kim Jong-Il. He strives, albeit with moderate success, to unveil the reality from the mounds of myth and distortions with which both men have surrounded themselves. But Martin's account is most chilling in his descriptions of contemporary North Korean society. And yet, as Martin eloquently illustrates in this important book, the control of the Kim dynasty may well be tenuous. Jay Freeman
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L.A. Times Review
"Martin's massive book provides as useful a set of insights into life in North Korea as can be found anywhere."
Review
"Martin's massive book provides as useful a set of insights into life in North Korea as can be found anywhere."
- L.A. Times Review
"As an AP correspondent covering South Korea in the 1970s, I learned quickly how difficult it was to discover any reliable information about that secretive, threatening regime to the north. Brad Martin's book is testimony to the thoroughness of his work, and the high level of his ability as a journalist and researcher.
" North Korea is one of the least known, least understood countries in the world. Its leaders have always been enigmas, both frightening and fascinating, but almost impossible to decipher. Again today, it becomes vitally important that we do both, yet there is almost nothing of importance being written about the subject. Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is important, as well as fascinating. The research is impeccable, the writing excellent. This is a major and timely contribution, and essential to anyone who hopes to deal sensibly with a vital region of the world."
-Terry Anderson, former AP correspondent and author of Den of Lions
"Brad Martin's Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, a careful, penetrating analysis of North Korea, is more than just a book. Given the levels of secrecy which surround the Pyongyang regime and the danger it poses to its neighbors, Martin has rendered a considerable service to us all."
-bestselling author, David Halbertstam
"Brad Martin's book on North Korea is at once enlightening and frightening. It is lucid in writing, balanced in analysis, and comprehensive in its meticulous research and anecdotal evidence. The detailed exposition of the narrow life of luxury and the devious character of the 'Dear Leader,' Kim Jong-il, is scary. So is the description of North Korea as a corrupt, secretive, stagnant fief of the Kim family. Brad Martin, with his long years as a Pyongyang-watcher, is eminently qualified to write a book that should strip away any illusions America and the West have about Kim's dangerous regime."
-Richard Halloran, former correspondent for The New York Times in Asia and Washington, D.C.
Book Description
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. Lifting North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take readers inside a society, that to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from birth to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of megalomaniacs.
To North Koreans, the Kims are more than just leaders. Kim Il-Sung is the country's leading novelist, philosopher, historian, educator, designer, literary critic, architect, general, farmer, and ping-pong trainer. Radios are made so they can only be tuned to the official state frequency. "Newspapers" are filled with endless columns of Kim speeches and propaganda. And instead of Christmas, North Koreans celebrate Kim's birthday--and he presents each child a present, just like Santa.
The regime that the Kim Dynasty has built remains technically at war with the United States nearly a half century after the armistice that halted actual fighting in the Korean War. This fascinating and complete history takes full advantage of a great deal of source material that has only recently become available (some from archives in Moscow and Beijing), and brings the reader up to the tensions of the current day. For as this book will explain, North Korea appears more and more to be the greatest threat among the Axis of Evil countries--with some defector testimony warning that Kim Jong-Il has enough chemical weapons to wipe out the entire population of South Korea.
About the Author
As a journalist, Bradley K. Martin has covered Korea and other parts of Asia for a quarter century, including stints as bureau chief for The Baltimore Sun, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Asia Times (for which he wrote a "Pyongyang Watch" column), and Asian Financial Intelligence. Since 1979, he has had four prolonged stays in North Korea and more direct access to the country than most any other American journalist. He is currently a journalist in residence at Louisiana State University.
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty FROM THE PUBLISHER
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Lifting Pyongyang's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book takes readers inside a society that to a Westerner may appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from infancy to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of despots. To North Koreans, the Kims have been more than just leaders. As a youthful church organist Kim Il-sung learned the tricks that would elevate him, decades later, to deity status. The god-king's perks include a harem. When Kim Jong-il's concubines reach their early twenties, they retire and are given husbands who may not know about the women's pasts. Kim is reported to play the go-between role himself in arranging some of their marriages; whoever complains goes to prison.
This fascinating, comprehensive work of history and reportage takes advantage of source material that has only recently become available (some from archives in Moscow and Beijing) to bring the reader up to date on the tensions of today. The regime that the Kim dynasty built remains technically at war with the United States - and an "Axis of Evil" member - more than half a century after the Korean War armistice. Defectors say Kim Jong-il has, besides nuclear bombs, enough chemical weapons to wipe out the entire population of South Korea. Under the circumstances, the author cautions, negotiation is far more promising than the highly risky alternative of forcible regime change. More than a decade in the making, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader for years to come will define a Spartan, stubbornly enigmatic society.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
This massive study of North Korea embraces its political and economic history over the last 70 years; the lives of its leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong Il; its diplomatic relations with South Korea, Japan, China, and the United States since 1945; its current crises regarding nuclear weapons and food shortages; and memories of the author's visit to North Korea in 1979. Martin, a former bureau chief for the Baltimore Sun, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, has much to offer. But his study's bulk is a curse as well as a blessing. The need for a lengthy chapter on the sexual exploits of North Korea's leaders is questionable. The huge amount of detail about a little-known state and culture is a welcome addition, but it is marred by personal impressions that are 25 years old, data from a plethora of secondary sources, and considerable uncorroborated testimony from North Korean defectors. Nevertheless, the discerning reader can gain much from this work. Recommended for all libraries. John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A sharp-eyed look at a cold and hungry outpost of the Axis of Evil. Former Newsweek bureau chief Martin first traveled to North Korea in 1979, and what he found was a near-religious cult of personality centered on the person of Kim Il-sung, known variously as the Great Leader, Fatherly Leader, Respected and Beloved Leader, and so on, a partial listing of whose reputed achievements "would have aroused the envy of a Leonardo da Vinci or Thomas Jefferson." And of a Priapus: as Martin writes in this sprawling and not often titillating work, Kim and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il apparently each take seriously the notion of being the father of their country, each setting aside great numbers of women for personal service. The list of special favors continues on and on: as his country descended ever deeper into poverty and famine in the late 1990s, Kim Jr. "kept a 10,000-bottle wine cellar and liked shark's fin soup several times a week," hosting banquets that lasted for days on end; when Kim Sr. reached his 70th birthday, his son order the construction of a commemorative version of the Arc de Triomphe, "larger than the Paris original," just one of the many monuments built in a program that would be a major drain on the country's economy. But no matter: the Kims, Martin writes, have created a command economy par excellence as part of the exceptionalist doctrine called juche, which means something like "national self-reliance" but really translates to something like Great-Leader-first. As for whether the bizarre Kim Jr.'s North Korea is a threat, Martin suggests that the nation's nuclear arsenal should give the world pause. But, he adds, that doesn't seem to be stopping Asian companies from"teaming their capital with the cheap labor of the North, where workers for foreign-invested joint ventures earned $100 to $400 a month."Martin goes on too long, but offers much good information along the way about a decidedly strange and dangerous land. Agent: Jack Scovil/Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency
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