Querido Líder: Os segredos explosivos da ditadura norte-coreana revelados por um alto funcionário do regime

عندما تقرأ هذا الكتاب ستدرك كم هي غالية تلك الجوهرة التي تسمى (حرية) ستعرف حتماً أن أغلى ما يملكه الإنسان هو حريته" الحرية أغلى من الأوطان "بكل تأكيد ما فائدة الوطن إذا كانت الأغلال قد جمدت عروقك ومزقت حريتك وكتمت كلمتك وجعلت لك الحياة قفصاً لا تأمل بالخروج منه حتى في أحلامكإن� [...]

I like to read speculative fiction – science fiction and fantasy – and this may as well be. The socio-political situation described in North Korea is as alien as something dreamed up by George Orwell or Philip K. Dick.The author was a state sponsored poet – actually a high-ranking member of the controlling workers party – and got to see behind the wizard’s curtain – realizing finally that all the propaganda about “Dear Leader”, the moniker used for the ruling Kim, was a load of h [...]

Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee-- A Look Inside North Korea by Jang Jin-sung provides an inside look into the North Korea. Jang served as one of the eight poet laureates of North Korea under Kim Jong-Il. Among those duties was the work on the Annals of the Kim Dynasty, where Jang notes, was written by writers and poets and not historians. As part of the protected, privileged, inner circle Jang did not experience the extreme poverty personally, but did encounter it on his trip back to his hometow [...]

This is an amazing book providing very intriguing insights into the life of the most bizarre and secretive regime in the world: North Korea. This regime, being the only remaining, time-warped expression of a Stalinist state in its purest and most paradoxically form, has always held a great fascination for me. I never visited Real Socialism countries, so I missed the historical boat now that none such states are left - apart from North Korea. I was very attracted to the idea of visiting North Kor [...]

I really wanted to like this book a lot. Anyone who gets out of North Korea is entitled to all the indulgence I can afford. But this one is just too fairy tale-like. Some of Jang's memories are filled with descriptions like, "He looked at me with a smile, and the two of us scampered off like playful children."One too many such descriptions and it all began to sound fake. One also has to give strong consideration to the author's callousness in not understanding the dangerous predicament those who [...]

This book completely blew my mind. Despite having to struggle with the names and acronyms, I couldn't put it down. This political autobiography of a poet brainwashed to use language only to serve the dictatorship, is way a long way from my usual literary tree - but this demands suspension of disbelief just as any fairy story might do. It opens the closed and cruel institution of dictatorship, leaving the question of whether humanity will ever get past crowd behaviours and primal fears which rend [...]

I read this because, probably like many people I'm curious about North Korea, and it was amazing. It's a history lesson, a groundbreaking current affairs expose, and a gripping escape story all rolled into one. Because Jang Jin-Sung held relatively privileged positions within North Korean society, he had access to far more information than the average citizen - and he's still not able to share all of it. What he does share, though, is definitely worth knowing about. The expected horrors and grim [...]

Great read

طوال قراءتي كنت أقلب الكتاب لأتأكد من المختصر على غلافه أن الشهادة حقيقية حدثت لشخص حقيقي وليست قصة خيالية مثل روايتي 1984، و"في بلاد الأشياء الأخيرة" اللتين وجدت فيهما تشابها كبيرا مع شهادة الكاتب.جانغ جين سونغ الكاتب، شاب يشغل أحد المناصب العليا في جهاز الدعاية في كوريا الشم [...]

I had thought that after reading the terrifying, inimitable, and heart-stopping “Nothing to Envy” that there wouldn’t by any shocks for me left in the world of North Korea. I felt that I was prepared mentally, if not emotionally, to read once again about the horrors faced by North Koreans, however, I was completely wrong. Jang was an elite, one who was personally favored by the Kim family, who had access to state secrets (such as North Korea abducting citizens from other countries to indoc [...]

هذا الكتاب هو شهادة لشاب أديب استطاع بموهبته الأدبية و الشعرية أن يلفت نظر رأس النظام في بلده و أن يصبح من (المعترف بهم) من قبل الديكتاتور كيم يونج إيل و ليحظى بالإمتيازات الناتجة عن هذا الوضع. و تأتي لحظة الحقيقة في حياته عند زيارته لبلدته و رؤيته لأبناء وطنه و هم يموتون من ال� [...]

سرگذشتنامه ای کم نظیر بود با توصیفات و تعلیقاتی قوی که از زبان شاعر محبوب کیم جونگ ایل، جنگ جین سونگ روایت میشه. راوی ابتدا به بیان کیفیت زندگی مردم کره و حکومت رهبر عزیز می پردازه و ملاقاتی که با رهبر عزیز داشته.ناگهان اتفاقی می افته که ورق برمیگرده. کتاب محرمانه ای رو گم می کن� [...]

تخيل اكتر افكارك النمطية عن كوريا الشمالية واستدعي من ذاكرتك كل الزعماء العرب الفاشيين والشمولينواخلطهم ف بعض هيبقوا ملايكة مقارنة باللي بيحصل ف كوريا الشماليةالكتاب مشكلته الاساسية انه بيديلك احساس ان دا طبيعي اللي هما فيه دا قشطة يعنيمفهوش مشاكل كبيرة يعنيخلينا نأخد خب� [...]

I am not sure what to make of this book. It reads like an over the top adventure yarn and I have no doubt that escaping North Korea is a harrowing ordeal or that the author experienced something very much like what is described. Nor do I doubt that the author really was a member of Kim Jong-il's inner circle who worked for the UFD as a poet and author. But outside those broad outlines, I am not sure how much of the book to believe.For starters, Jang Jin-sung is not the author's real name - it is [...]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.I've read several nonfiction books purporting to explain life inside North Korea, but only one other by an actual defector. That book was Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. It was the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, as told to American journalist Blaine Harden, who actually wrote the book. My review of Escape from Camp 14 included these comments:An interesting but curiously flat and skimpy retelling of a North Korean priso [...]

القائد العزيز يبدو هذا الكتاب كرواية أورويلية، الشاب الكوري الشمالي الذي يعمل في جهاز أمني دعائي في بيونغ يانغ، حيث تتلخص مهمته اليومية في التظاهر بأنه كوري جنوبي، قراءة الكتب والصحف الكورية الجنوبية بشكل سري، ومن ثم كتابة أشعار تمجد كيم جونغ إيل باسم مستعار، تنشر لاحقاً ع� [...]

I'm divided in how I feel about this book. On the one hand, hearing a perspective from a high ranking insider with several (brief) encounters with Kim Jong Il was very interesting. I wished to hear more about the life of the privileged in the regime, but oh well. Throughout the book, I did find myself questioning how much was embellished. Maybe embellished isn't the world, but perhaps whitewashed is better. Jang always portrays himself as a morally courageous, but I'm left wondering. It's a memo [...]

Only few books can make me stay awake for more than 24 hours when in the next morning I have to wake up early for university, and "Dear Leader" is one of them. I couldn't put it down no matter what and it even made me cry at five in the morning.I already had some information about what goes on in North Korea of oppression, but this book gave me lot of new information that at several times left me with a dropped jaw and anger. Although I am not that much happy where I live and war or bombings hap [...]

كتاب رائع جدا وغني بالمشاعر الانسانية الصادقة التي تجبر القارئ على ان يدمع حزنا وتأثرا بالظلم الوحشي الذي يعاني منه البشر في اكثر من موضع في العالم ، الكتاب هو سيرة خلاص انسان طلب الحرية وكان عليه المجازفة بحياته في سبيلها لان قدره هو انه ولد في بلاد يحكمها اعتى الانظمة الدي� [...]

- هل لدي وطن ؟ - تساءل الكاتب عن ذلك أثناء فراره من براثن حزب العمال الكوري الشمالي بحثاً عن حريته مع صديقٍ له . كيم جونغ - إيل ، رئيس كوريا الشمالية من عام ١٩٩٤ ، الأحمق الديكتاتوري الي فرض على شعبه الموت جوعاً و من ثم تقديس اعماله البطولية - إن وجدت - . جان جين - سونغ ، قد عاش أكثر م [...]

متاسفانه نوشتن از مشکلات و بدبختی مردم در کره شمالی، تبدیل به بیزینسی شده که ناشران و مدیران رسانه‌ها در غرب و فرارکردگان از کره شمالی درگیر آن هستند. به احتمال بالای 90 درصد فساد ذکرشده در این کتاب و کتب مشابه در کره شمالی واقعیت است. سوال اینجا است که جامعه جهانی به جز تفریح ذ� [...]

This is the first and only defector story I've read so far, so I can't really say it's the best, nor can I critique on anything regarding the legitimacy if it's content, since if anyone would know anything about the regime, it would be Jang and those ruling it. However, I can say that the reason why I enjoyed the book was not solely because of my interest in the country. While Jang did provide really interesting information as well as understandable explanations, it was the way he intertwined th [...]

IF EVERYTHING IN THIS BOOK IS TRUE that would be awesome. Jang Jin-Sung definitely seems to bring the goods. Since he is revealing insider scoop on that most closed of nations, North Korea, there's very little validation and fact-checking to be done. I've read a few books, both fiction and non-fiction, about North Korea, and this book is different: not only is there perspective from the top of that hierarchy, there's analysis I've never seen before on the shaping of a nation's militaristic ident [...]

I am in awe of this book. One of Kim Jong-Il's "admitted" officers flees over the Tumen river through China, knowing what nobody outside the country should ever know of. Coming across more than a fair share of obstacles, he manages to escape - many times by pure chance.Although this book uses a completely different approach to the story of a defector, it tells all the same issues and struggles like most of the other books about North Korean defectors - plus a little bit more.The author is a poet [...]

"Freedom is freely given to anyone born in a free land, but others have to risk their lives for it."North Korea is a country I am very much intrigued with. Another book I've read on North Korea is Escape From Camp 14 in which Shin Donghyuk tells what happens in the labor camps specifically. Dear Leader, in contrast, focuses on North Korea in general: the cultification of the leaders in North Korea, particularly their Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, since the author, Jang Jin-sung, lived (and escaped) [...]

Reading Dear Leader is akin to reading one of the many famous dystopian novels through the 20th century; your 1984s and Brave New Worlds but of course set in the very real, very present, late 20th and early 21th century. Jang Jin-Sung combines his personal memoir from birth up to the point of becoming a South Korean resident with a critical account of North Korean society and politics on a more general scale. The author of this book worked among some of the highest appointed ‘cadres’ in Nort [...]

We misunderstand the North Koreans as badly as they misunderstand us. I know there are good people out there who dedicate their lives to understanding North Korea. I fear they are not being listened to. Trumps bluster puts Baby in a corner. Lack of diplomatic channels, our tendency to mirror and project can and has lead to unintended consequences. Not to mention that Trump is a rash bully with no experience, knowledge, interest, intelligence nor impulse control. I am no Korea expert. I believe K [...]

Although a memoir, this book reads like a fiction novel. The oppression of North Koreans by the tyrant regime doesn't seem to fit in this century. The book is an eye opener for the outsiders on the pitiful state of North Koreans. This rare insight on the functioning of DPRK and the government's absolute grip on its people is shocking. The country works like a prison, with severed connections from outside world, where people can't leave or talk to outsiders with no access to what is going around [...]

عنوان کتاب «رهبر عزیز» لقب دومین رهبر کره شمالی – یا آنطور که خودشان می‌گویند جمهوری دموکراتیک خلق کره – کیم جونگ ایل است. وی پس از مرگ پدرش کیم سونگ ایل در سال ۱۹۹۴ عهده دار مقام ریاست حزب کارگران کره شمالی شد. حزب کارگران از آخرین پرچمداران کمونیسم در جهان امروز است. در سال ۱ [...]

Given the current state of our world and the recent assassination of Kim Jong Un's half brother, this mesmerizing book should be required reading. Chronicling the author's harrowing journey from life as a highly placed cadre to a hunted political refugee in China, the book also pulls back the curtain on the brutal Kim dynasty. The insights into this regime are invaluable, starting with the fact that no bargain on the international stage is ever made in good faith. Those who deal with this regime [...]