Hungry for Peace: International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Change in North Korea - Softcover

Smith, Hazel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1929223587 ISBN 13: 9781929223589

Publisher: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2005

Synopsis

This revealing and challenging study of the impact of famine on North Korea not only significantly enlarges our understanding of that hermetic country but also urges us to reassess how we deal with it.Drawing on impressive scholarship and extensive firsthand knowledge of humanitarian relief efforts in North Korea, Hazel Smith provides an eye-opening account of the famine that devastated the country in the 1990s and of the international rescue program that Pyongyang requested and received. Together, she explains, the famine and the humanitarian response have wrought subtle but profound changes in North Korea's economy, society, and security outlook. She makes a compelling argument that the regime has been prodded into accepting some international norms, allowed markets to develop, and has included some human security concerns alongside military-political interests in its negotiations with the West.The famine and its consequences, the author contends, have made North Korea much more "knowable" and predictable than most Western experts choose to believe. Treating North Korea as a rational actor, albeit one with an idiosyncratic mindset, will enhance long-term regional peace and cooperation; isolating and demonizing it will only perpetuate the anxieties that fuel Pyongyang's belligerence.

About this title

Synopsis:

Smith describes the famine that devastated the country in the 1990s and the international rescue program that Pyongyang requested and received. Together, the famine and the humanitarian response have wrought subtle but profound changes in North Korea's economy, society, and security outlook. Smith argues that the regime has been prodded into accept

About this edition

• Publisher: United States Institute of Peace Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1929223587
• ISBN 13: 9781929223589
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288