The Kim Dynasty of North Korea: The Notorious History of the Hermit Kingdom's Supreme Leaders

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading “We are of a single nation, of the same blood, but forcibly divided.” – attributed to Kim Il-sung North Korea has long been the butt of jokes, and it has been a longstanding target of international criticism, but the startling satellite image was anything but amusing, for it demonstrated the truly catastrophic conditions North Koreans find themselves in. Statistics show that the average South Korean uses up to 10,162 kilowatt hours of power per year, whereas their neighbors in the north consume only 739. This is only one amongst a slew of stumbling blocks affecting the state, impeding it from proper progress. The mismatching network of sprawling, yet lifeless cities and squalid, poverty-stricken provinces stands eerily silent next to the bustling metropolises on either side of it. North Korea is trapped in an impenetrable, soundproof bubble, the entire state frozen in time. Notwithstanding a fractional sliver of the capital, where the Supreme Commander and the North Korean elites resided, the faded Pyongyang skyline and its blocky, monotone buildings – while a vast improvement from the rest of the state – seemed to be lifted straight out of the '70s at best.