North Korea Undercover, John Sweeney
North Korea Undercover, John Sweeney
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
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North Korea Undercover
Inside the World’s Most Secret State

Author: John Sweeney

Narrator: Gildart Jackson

Unabridged: 10 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/15/2015

Synopsis

An authoritative and frightening investigation into the dark side of North Korean societyNorth Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. Its citizens are told their home is the greatest nation in the world, and big brother is always watching. It is Orwell’s 1984 made reality.Award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney is one of the few foreign journalists to have witnessed the devastating reality of life in the controversial and isolated nation of North Korea. Having entered the country undercover, Sweeny posed as a university professor with a group of students from the London School of Economics.Huge factories with no staff or electricity, hospitals with no patients, uniformed child soldiers, and the world-famous and eerily empty DMZ—the Demilitarized Zone, where North Korea ends and South Korea begins—are all framed by a relentless flow of regime propaganda from omnipresent loudspeakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line, and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty at the slightest sign of discontent.Drawing on his own experiences and his extensive interviews with defectors and other key witnesses, Sweeney’s North Korea Undercover pulls back the curtain, providing a rare insight into life there today while examining the country’s troubled history and addressing important questions about its uncertain future.

About John Sweeney

John Sweeney is a reporter for BBC Panorama who became a YouTube sensation when he lost his temper with a senior member of the Church of Scientology. Before joining the BBC in 2001, he worked for twelve years at the Observer, where he covered wars and revolutions and unrest in more than sixty countries. Over the course of his career, Sweeny has won one Emmy, two Royal Television Society Awards, one Radio Academy Award, the What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year Prize, an award from Amnesty International, and the Paul Foot Award. The author of eight books, his hobby is falling off his bike on the way back from the pub.

About Gildart Jackson

Gildart Jackson’s acting credits span the stage and screen. He is most often recognized for his roles as Gideon on Charmed and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital. He has also starred in numerous television shows, including CSI and Vegas, and he played the lead in the highly acclaimed independent feature film You, directed by his wife, Melora Hardin.

Reviews

Goodreads review by 11811 (Eleven) on March 16, 2017

Journalists have a knack for making this sort of material more accessible than the average historian but I can't say I learned anything that can't be found on Wikipedia. I was however reminded of things I had forgotten and enjoyed the reading experience. The use of humor was well played and I'm fort......more

Goodreads review by Speedstar25 on January 01, 2014

It looks more like a tourist reviewing a place he had visited rather than an undercover story. In my own opinion, the book does not cover much in depth details of the DPRK regime as compared to other books such as "Nothing to Envy" and "The aquarium of Pyongyang". This book-"North Korea Undercover" m......more

Goodreads review by Clare on August 10, 2016

I found this an interesting though depressing read. We don't know exactly what goes on inside North Korea nor how many people starve to death or are jailed for life in cold gulags; but thanks to various journalists and escapees we have a fair idea. John Sweeney of BBC clearly despises the personalit......more

Goodreads review by Angus on October 25, 2017

Great book! Highly interesting. Extremely well written with sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humor. It’s such a weird, weird world. And sad. It’s true. Highly recommended!......more

Goodreads review by Gremrien on May 30, 2023

The title is misleading: you may think that the author was a secret agent/spy who stayed inside North Korea for some time and investigated it under a special James-Bond-ish mission (at least I was under such an impression when I picked the book up). No, of course not. The author indeed was in North......more

Quotes

“Sweeney’s book is a spark in the dark of North Korea.” Times (London)

“Harrowing…creepy and poignant; and, in turn, tragic and obscene. North Korea Undercover asserts that the West should be more concerned about labor camps than nuclear weapons.” Sunday Business Post (Dublin)

“This is a chilling book, but a timely one, written with both humor and compassion. Buy it, read it, and discuss it.” Solidarity

“An outsider’s rare look into a mysterious and terrifying place ruled and ruined by three generations of tyrants…This account is shocking and unsettling, but also darkly entertaining.” Publishers Weekly

“Sweeney provides a remarkably vivid look at this hidden country…An investigative must-read.” Booklist

Awards

  • Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week
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