The Kim dynasty and the North Korean famine
Three generations of the Kim family rule North Korea as a closed, militarised state; in the 1990s a famine kills hundreds of thousands.
- The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia — Andrei Lankov, Oxford University Press (2013)
- Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform — Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, Columbia University Press (2007)
- Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — UN Human Rights Council, United Nations (2014)
- The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History — Don Oberdorfer and Robert Carlin, Basic Books (2014)
Kim Il-sung ruled North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994, building a Stalinist state with a personality cult of extraordinary intensity, a hereditary class system based on family loyalty (songbun), and the ideology of Juche. In the 1960s the North was richer than the South. His son Kim Jong-il succeeded him, the first communist hereditary succession, and in 2011 power passed to his grandson Kim Jong-un.
- The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia — Andrei Lankov, Oxford University Press (2013)
- The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History — Don Oberdorfer and Robert Carlin, Basic Books (2014)
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the North lost cheap oil and trade. Floods in 1995–96 finished off a crumbling collective farming system, and the state distribution system that fed most people broke down. Haggard and Noland estimate that 600,000 to one million people died. Survivors turned to private trade, and the informal markets (jangmadang) born then still sustain much of the population.
- Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform — Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, Columbia University Press (2007)
- The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia — Andrei Lankov, Oxford University Press (2013)
The North tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006. A 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry documented systematic torture, starvation and political prison camps holding tens of thousands, and found crimes against humanity. More than 30,000 North Koreans have reached the South.
- Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — UN Human Rights Council, United Nations (2014)
- The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History — Don Oberdorfer and Robert Carlin, Basic Books (2014)
The Kims are the benevolent "suns" of the nation, who defend it against American imperialism through Juche (self-reliance) and nuclear deterrence. The famine was caused by natural disasters and enemy sanctions.
- The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia — Andrei Lankov, Oxford University Press (2013)
The famine was made far worse by the regime's choices: it kept the military fed, restricted aid and blocked movement. Haggard and Noland estimate 600,000 to one million deaths, about 3–5% of the population; other estimates range lower and higher. A UN inquiry in 2014 found crimes against humanity, including in political prison camps.
- Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform — Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, Columbia University Press (2007)
- Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — UN Human Rights Council, United Nations (2014)
Why it matters today
The North is both a foreign country and family. Its nuclear weapons hang over the South, its defectors live as a struggling minority there, and its human-rights record weighs on every discussion of unification. The famine, which North Koreans call the "Arduous March", ended many people's faith in the state and gave birth to the markets that now feed most families.