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North Korea Undercover
- Inside the World's Most Secret State
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.
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In The People's Republic of Amnesia, NPR correspondent Louisa Lim charts how the events of June 4 changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4 by rewriting its own history. Lim reveals new details about those fateful days, including how one of the country's most senior politicians lost a family member to an army bullet, as well as the inside story of the young soldiers sent to clear Tiananmen Square.
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great book and recording
- By Robert Peters on 06-14-16
By: Louisa Lim
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The Morning They Came for Us
- Dispatches from Syria
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- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
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Doing for Syria what Imperial Life in the Emerald City did for the war in Iraq, The Morning They Came for Us bears witness to one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawing from years of experience covering Syria for Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and the front pages of the New York Times, award-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni gives us a tour de force of war reportage, all told through the perspective of ordinary people.
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Bearing Witness to the Brutalities of War
- By Theo Horesh on 06-07-18
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The Long Hangover
- Putin’s New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past
- By: Shaun Walker
- Narrated by: Michael Page
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In The Long Hangover, Shaun Walker provides new insight into contemporary Russia and its search for a new identity, telling the story through the country's troubled relationship with its Soviet past. Walker not only explains Vladimir Putin's goals and the government's official manipulations of history, but also focuses on ordinary Russians and their motivations. He charts how Putin raised victory in World War II to the status of a national founding myth in the search for a unifying force to heal a divided country, and shows how dangerous the ramifications of this have been.
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Fascinating and fair book on Putin's Russia
- By MyPublicName on 02-16-18
By: Shaun Walker
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Symphony for the City of the Dead
- Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
- By: M. T. Anderson
- Narrated by: M. T. Anderson
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In September 1941, Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history - almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943 - 1944. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens - the Leningrad Symphony.
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An Eye-Opening, Emotional Tale
- By A.L.R. on 02-05-16
By: M. T. Anderson
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Children of the Night
- The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania
- By: Paul Kenyon
- Narrated by: Paul Kenyon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The country that gave us Vlad Dracula, and whose citizens consider themselves descendants of ancient Rome, has traditionally preferred the status of enigmatic outsider. But this beautiful and unexplored land has experienced some of the most disastrous leaderships of the last century. After a relatively benign period led by a dutiful king and his vivacious, British-born queen, the country oscillated wildly.
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A haunting look at Romanian history
- By Steve Adams on 07-19-24
By: Paul Kenyon
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Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
- The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
- By: Peter Pomerantsev
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
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Story
Professional killers with the souls of artists, would-be theater directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, suicidal supermodels, Hell's Angels who hallucinate themselves as holy warriors, and oligarch revolutionaries: welcome to the glittering, surreal heart of 21st-century Russia. It is a world erupting with new money and new power, changing so fast it breaks all sense of reality, home to a form of dictatorship far subtler than 20th century strains, that is rapidly rising to challenge the West.
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Loved it!
- By Elle Kay on 11-25-16
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The Trigger
- Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War
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- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
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The Trigger tells the story of a young man who changed the world forever. It focuses on the drama of the incident itself by following Princip's journey. By retracing his steps from the feudal frontier village of his birth, through the mountains of the northern Balkans to the great plain city of Belgrade, and ultimately to Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding of Princip and makes discoveries about him that have eluded historians for 100 years.
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Good, but not what I was looking for
- By Kendra on 07-08-14
By: Tim Butcher
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The Fear
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Born in what’s now called Zimbabwe, journalist Peter Godwin returns to his homeland in 2008 after three decades of Robert Mugabe’s brutal economic and human destruction. Hoping to “dance on Mugabe’s political grave” in the wake of the tyrant’s defeat at the polls, Godwin instead risks his life to secretly chronicle Mugabe’s ruthless backlash of torture and terror locals call “The Fear.”
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Read at your own Risk!
- By Jim on 05-05-15
By: Peter Godwin
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HHhH
- By: Laurent Binet
- Narrated by: John Lee
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HHhH: "Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich," or "Himmler's brain is called Heydrich." The most dangerous man in Hitler's cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich was known as the "Butcher of Prague." He was feared by all and loathed by most. With his cold Aryan features and implacable cruelty, Heydrich seemed indestructible-until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service-killed him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, and thus changed the course of History.
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Himlers Hirn heisst Heydrich
- By Darwin8u on 02-02-13
By: Laurent Binet
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Brothers of the Gun
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Overall
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In 2011, Marwan Hisham and his two friends - fellow working-class college students Nael and Tareq - joined the first protests of the Arab Spring in Syria, in response to a recent massacre. Arm in arm they marched, poured Coca-Cola into one another’s eyes to blunt the effects of tear gas, ran from the security forces, and cursed the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad. It was ecstasy. A long-bottled revolution was finally erupting, and freedom from a brutal dictator seemed, at last, imminent.
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Perfect with Peter Ganim
- By Anonymous User on 06-14-24
By: Marwan Hisham, and others
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Spies of No Country
- Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel
- By: Matti Friedman
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
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The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel's existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk....
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Absolutely brilliant
- By David Mane on 06-23-19
By: Matti Friedman
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Limonov
- The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia
- By: Emmanuel Carrère, John Lambert - translator
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This is how Emmanuel Carrère, the magnetic journalist, novelist, filmmaker, and chameleon, describes his subject: "Limonov is not a fictional character. There. I know him. He has been a young punk in Ukraine, the idol of the Soviet underground; a bum, then a multimillionaire's butler in Manhattan; a fashionable writer in Paris; a lost soldier in the Balkans; and now, in the fantastic shambles of postcommunism, the elderly but charismatic leader of a party of young desperadoes."
By: Emmanuel Carrère, and others
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What listeners say about North Korea Undercover
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Peter
- 08-07-17
Get it.
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.
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- KL100
- 06-05-18
Enlightening and entertaining
John Sweeney ‘s book offers interesting insight into the “hermit kingdom” of North Korea. He does this mostly by telling the story of his tour inside the country. He also has a great sense of humor and while he treats the human rights issues quite seriously, he also pokes fun at much of the propaganda and absurdity. He is an excellent story teller. I really enjoyed it. The narrator was great too.
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- Stephen
- 07-09-16
Disturbing
This book was very informative and disturbing. I liked how the author mixed current events, first hand experience, and a history of the regime in North Korea.
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- R. Bedsole
- 08-03-16
North Korea a cult
this book throws a lot of light on what's happening in North Korea. it is a shame that the government of North Korea treats its citizens as evil as it does. this is a good source of information if you want to know what's going on. I'm personally not into cannibalism.
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- Gillian
- 06-29-16
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.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Taylor Of The Nati
- 11-29-17
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.
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- Desiree Orozco
- 11-29-22
FANTASTIC LISTEN!!
I have listened to many books on North Korea and this is one of the best I have heard.
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- Richard P. Kalustian
- 07-21-16
THE HERMIT NATION
What made the experience of listening to North Korea Undercover the most enjoyable?
The subject of North Korea is fascinating. The examples of places visited--hospitals with no patients, universities with no students, manufacturing plants with no employees, etc.--were perfect explanations for why this nation is in the situation it is. Add to that the awful condition of the people and the area outside the government center in Pyongyang and you have a picture of human suffering.
Who was your favorite character and why?
There are no characters, as such, in this work of non-fiction. The only person in the cross hairs is Kim Jong Un; he seems like a character from fiction.
If you could give North Korea Undercover a new subtitle, what would it be?
A Visit to Hell
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- Mitch Manning
- 04-29-20
Fantastic!!
Wonderful, excellent book. I think everyone should read this. Well written information. I learned a lot!!
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- DRF
- 07-04-16
Poor North Korea– saddled with the three Kims
Would you listen to North Korea Undercover again? Why?
John Sweeney pulls no punches when it comes to reporting his first-hand experience and in-depth investigation of a truly down-trodden people ruled by three successive psychopathic dictators. Sweeney is devastatingly witty and wicked as he skewers the banality and viciousness of the "Great Leader", the "Dear Leader", and now the third generation Kim. I would listen again just to enjoy Sweeney's wordplay and sense of irony, which one has to have in writing about this cuckoo country.
What did you like best about this story?
If it weren't so very sad for the long-suffering people of North Korea, this would all be howlingly funny– factories with no workers, streets with no traffic, universities with no students, hospitals that have patients "only in the morning", farms with no crops or animals, and the only place the electricity is never interrupted is the mausoleum for the preserved corpses of the two dead Kims.
Which character – as performed by Gildart Jackson – was your favorite?
Probably the "Dear Leader", a murdering psychopath who just wanted to be a bit taller with his platform shoes and bouffant hair, who according to Sweeney and expertly read by Jackson, "was a bad Elvis impersonator".
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The accounts of the famine in the late 1990's that killed between 500,000 and 3.5 million North Koreans because of the ineptitude, selfishness, and brutality of the country's leaders.
Any additional comments?
Everyone should read or listen to this book so that there are no illusions about the world's most dysfunctional government and most oppressed people.
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