Much hearsay surrounds North Korea and the intentions of Kim Jong-il. But B.R. Myers, an analyst of North Korean politics, argues that much of this 'knowledge' is wrong, maintaining that there is more discourse on North Korea's nuclear programme than on the motivation behind it. Drawing on decades worth of research on Worker's Party ideology and propaganda, Myers shows how Kim Jong-il's regime is guided by a paranoid, race-based nationalism with roots in Japanese fascist thought.

Author Biography

B.R. Myers was born in New Jersey and raised in Bermuda, South Africa and Germany. He has a Ph.D. in North Korean Studies from the University of Tubingen in Germany. His books include "Han Sorya and North Korean Literature" (Cornell East Asia Series, 1994) and "A Reader's Manifesto" (Melville House, 2002). At present he directs the international studies department at Dongseo University in South Korea. In addition to writing literary criticism for the American magazine "The Atlantic," of which he is a contributing editor, Myers regularly contributes articles on North Korea to the "New York Times," "Wall Street Journal" and academic publications.