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North Korea
Index
This edition of North Korea: A Country Study replaces
the previous edition, published in 1981. Like its predecessor,
this study attempts to review the history and treat in a concise
manner the dominant social, political, economic, and military
aspect of contemporary North Korea. Sources of information
included books, scholarly journals, foreign and domestic
newspapers, official reports of governments and international
organizations, and numerous periodicals on Korean and East Asian
affairs. A word of caution is necessary, however. The government
of a closed communist society such as that of North Korea
controls information for internal and external consumption,
limiting both the scope of coverage and its dissemination. For
instance, data from North Korea are, on the whole, dated,
limited, and couched in vagaries--and are often provided as
percentages of increases over previous years rather than as hard
numbers. In addition, information coming from the outside is
subject to the political bent of its originator. Data from South
Korea, for example, seek, by and large, to show the superiority
of that country's economic and political system. North Korea's
1991 admission to the United Nations, however, may result in the
release of more statistics.
Chapter bibliographies appear at the end of the book, and
brief comments on some of the more valuable sources recommended
for further reading appear at the end of each chapter. A Glossary
also is included.
Spellings of place-names used in the book are in most cases
those approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names
(BGN); the spelling of some of the names, however, cannot be
verified, as the BGN itself notes. The generic parts appended to
some geographic names have been dropped and their English
equivalents substituted: for example, Mayang Island, not Mayangdo , and South P'yngan Province, not P'yngan-namdo. The name
North Korea has been used where appropriate in place of the
official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The McCuneReischauer system of transliteration has been employed except for
the names of some prominent national figures and internationally
recognized corporations where the more familiar journalistic
equivalent is used. The names of Korean authors writing in
English are spelled as given.
Measurements are given in the metric system. A conversion
table is provided to assist those readers who are unfamiliar with
metric measurements (see
table 1, Appendix).
The body of the text reflects information available as of
June 30, 1993. Certain other portions of the text, however, have
been updated: the Introduction discusses significant events that
have occurred since the completion of research, the Country
Profile includes updated information as available, and the
Bibliography lists recently published sources thought to be
particularly helpful to the reader.
Data as of June 1993
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