Historical Dictionary Of North Korea Book

I read Clive's book after seeing Graham Holliday's review. Graham is an author I greatly respect and one I've eagerly enjoyed devouring both Eating Korea and Eating Vietnam. That said Mr. Clive's book is thoroughly interesting. Clive writes one of the few accounts of traveling around Korea focusing on the South. I've read a number of books on Korea which almost exclusively focus on the North. One of the things I love about South Korea and Taiwan for that matter is that they tend to be off of the tourist path of Japan, China, Vietnam and Thailand that check the boxes for most western tourists.

Clive wrote this book while in his mid-thirty to mid-forties and perhaps being in that same age range makes me connect with it more. I've spent a month or more in Korea each year for most of the last 14 years and Clive's observations rang true. That being said I visited Korea 25-30 years after his visits, so it is fascinating how few things have changed. Steps are still uneven, Daegu (Taegu) is still sort of grumpy and uninviting and Ulleungdo still doesn't have an airport (not for a lack of trying). What has changed is Korea's democratic institutions. While the Chaebol still reign supreme disgraced former President Park Geun-hye was ousted without any of the violence on frequent display in To Dream of Pigs. South Korea still has many problems to deal with, but it's feeble democracy of the late 1980's and early 1990's has developed into something that will hopefully prove to be strong and lasting.

I enjoyed that I have been to most of the same places as Clive, all of which made an impression on me: Seoul, Sokcho and Seoraksan, Pohang, Ulleungdo, Busan, Cheju, Mokpo and Panmunjom. I shared his dislike of Gyeongju where I ate a disappointing pork cutlet. While I'd say I'm decently well read I did find some of the Englishness of this book hard to penetrate and at some times even hard to understand, especially references to Derbyshire, comparisons with UK politicians and etc. This book does a great job of sharing what Korea was like 30 years ago. The most disappointing chapters were those on North Korea which made the author seem like a whiny tourist enjoying a visit to the gulag that is North Korea. While at the time of writing I imagine this would have been more enlightening than it is now, so much has been published on the North that it comes off almost cliche - that's not the author's fault because he was there before most other accounts. Comrades and Strangers by Michael Harrold, another Brit, is worth a read on living in North Korea.