North Korea Undercover

Inside the World's Most Secret State

By: John Sweeney

Narrated by: Gildart Jackson

An authoritative and frightening investigation into the dark side of North Korean society

North Korea is like no other tyranny on Earth. Its citizens are told their home is the greatest nation in the world, and Big Brother is always watching. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality.

Award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney is one of the few foreign journalists to have witnessed the devastating reality of life in the controversial and isolated nation of North Korea. Having entered the country undercover, Sweeny posed as a university professor with a group of students from the London School of Economics.

Huge factories with no staff or electricity, hospitals with no patients, uniformed child soldiers, and the world-famous and eerily empty DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone, where North Korea ends and South Korea begins - are all framed by a relentless flow of regime propaganda from omnipresent loudspeakers. Free speech is an illusion: One word out of line, and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty at the slightest sign of discontent.

Drawing on his own experiences and his extensive interviews with defectors and other key witnesses, Sweeney's North Korea Undercover pulls back the curtain, providing a rare insight into life there today while examining the country's troubled history and addressing important questions about its uncertain future.

©2015 John Sweeny (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

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Any additional comments?

A good amount of history. Some, but not alot about Kim 3.
A bit repetitive here and there, but overall money well spent.

It would be difficult for anyone to write a report on N. Korea. The report is up to date as far as late 2016 (it does not mention the brothers assassination).

Sweeny did a good job with what he had. Jackson is a top notch narrator.

I'll be looking for more books on N. Korea, and scouring the reviews for recommendations.

A rare look into the twisted living in North Korea

I can't believe those poor people have to live like they do. It's really sad, and makes you extremely grateful to live in the US. Hopefully they will be liberated once Kim Jong is gone.

Oh, the Horrors You'll Find Humorous...

Seriously, there are a lot of things in "North Korea Undercover" that are sheer tragedy, but in the hands of John Sweeney, they're actually hilarious.
There's nothing funny about executions... until there is. Nothing funny about mass unemployment and underdevelopment... until there is. I guess what saves this book from being offensive is that it's so darned enlightening.
I got into North Korea whilst doing research and quickly became quite a rabid fan of N. Korean nonfiction, having ten audiobooks alone on the subject. If you've done the defector books, and if you've done (or prefer not to do, as it's a bit academic:) "Nothing to Envy" (which you can find here on Audible), "Undercover" is for you. It's an incredibly wry look at what it means to be North Korean, especially of the "middle-class." The stores with nothing to sell, the hospitals that have no medicine but will somehow cure you before noon, the factories that have no employees and produce nothing, the sporadic electricity, and ESPECIALLY the constant, looming threat of war with America.
It's hilarious, especially when Sweeney pushes the envelope and ruffles the feathers of the group's handlers, true-believers or just-trying-to-get-along types.
There's plenty of history here too about the Kims. It's horrifying, yet somehow also written in an almost affectionate style as an homage to how the general population gets along. There's a trip to the zoo... then information about the camps. There's splashing around in waterfalls... then sightings of poverty beyond the imagination.
Sometimes the text does indeed slow down, but Gildart Jackson is a fine narrator, and you'll find yourself chuckling despite the fact that your mind was just about ready to wander.
A fine book, just coulda used some minor editing.
And please. If you do insist on splashing in North Korea's waterfalls? Wear underpants without holes. Your minders will really appreciate it.

Second listen

this is my second listen and it is just as good as the first. The narrator could not be better. His mix of empathy and suspicion make the reading absolutely brilliant. This book is not for the faint of heart. The scenes described are laughably terrifying. The incompetence is so deep it should be a comedy, but yet it snuffs out the life of the Innocent. I'm sure I will listen to this a third time. I'm sure I will feel the same emotions; tears and uncomfortably guilty laughter.

FANTASTIC LISTEN!!

I have listened to many books on North Korea and this is one of the best I have heard.