Dear Leader

Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look inside North Korea

By: Jang Jin-sung

Narrated by: Daniel York

Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

In this rare insider's view into contemporary North Korea, a high-ranking counterintelligence agent describes his life as a former poet laureate to Kim Jong-il and his breathtaking escape to freedom.

"The General will now enter the room."

Everyone turns to stone. Not moving my head, I direct my eyes to a point halfway up the archway where Kim Jong-il’s face will soon appear.

As North Korea's State Poet Laureate, Jang Jin-sung led a charmed life. With food provisions (even as the country suffered through its great famine), a travel pass, access to strictly censored information, and audiences with Kim Jong-il himself, his life in Pyongyang seemed safe and secure. But this privileged existence was about to be shattered. When a strictly forbidden magazine he lent to a friend goes missing, Jang Jin-sung must flee for his life.

Never before has a member of the elite described the inner workings of this totalitarian state and its propaganda machine. An astonishing exposé told through the heart-stopping story of Jang Jin-sung's escape to South Korea, Dear Leader is a rare and unprecedented insight into the world’s most secretive and repressive regime.

©2014 Jang Jin-Sung. All rights reserved. (P)2014 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Everyone living in a free world should read this!

This is a heart-touching story that will make you feel and think deeply. You will get a great insight into how a starving country will allow adults and kids die by the thousands, and yet to keep the world from focusing on that will militarily attack disputed islands and do other things just short of war to keep things confused.

It shows the depth of evil in a communist dictatorship. Often, I am asked why I back a large western military. The answer to me is simple. Evil lives on. Everyone should read this book (or listen to it via Audible) to obtain a clearer understanding of what can happen in a totally corrupt nation -- even to the "privileged".

This is a book a thinking person will be very glad they took the time to read.

North Korea is a giant personality cult

I found this book thoroughly interesting, engaging, and thought-provoking. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure whether to believe everything Jang Jin-sung has written here. At several points, it was gut wrenching in the way that those old WWII newsreels are ... you know the ones I mean ... you can't bear to keep looking, but can't bear to look away either. Like with those old films, the most horrifying thing to realize is that this is actually going on in the world right now -- people are living in that place, so deeply deceived and kept under the thumb of one of the most vile regimes known to man.

If everything Mr. Jin-sung has related here is true, North Korea is a terrible place to live, and its leader(s) are the scum of the earth -- the scum of the scum of the earth. It will indeed be a joyous day when that regime is overthrown.

An Edge of Your Seat Thriller!

Jang Jin-sung starts the book with his life inside North Korea as a poet and quickly becomes disillusioned. Finally, he is forced, no options, to run for his life with a friend. "Dear Leader" gives a view into North Korea that only "Nothing to Envy" does more painfully, and every step of the way, we the readers, hold our breaths. Because we know, as Jang knows, as his friend knows, bad, bad, bad things will happen if they get caught trying to escape to China.
One of the things that I liked about this book, however, was that, through the doom and gloom, there were some mighty good people, willing to risk their lives (yeah, sure, maybe a couple of them asked for a pittance, but money or not, they were risking prison/death just the same) to help the young men out. So many times, books/stories of this nature have no bright spots. I was so happy to listen to people caring. I'm not sure that I'd have that kind of bravery when it came down to it, especially since Jang and everyone can NEVER relax; escaping North Korea is bad enough, but China is no picnic either.
You will bite your nails with this book. You will gasp with horror and surprise. You will pace as you listen (instead of doing things you need to do like, oh, say laundry 'cause the washing machine is too loud and you won't be able to hear the book over it...)
If you're looking for an exciting, enthralling, if appalling/horrifying read, "Dear Leader" definitely is it!

First Person Account of Freedom's call.

it is difficult to imagine life in such a closed, iron fisted country. Count our lucky stars to have been born into freedom. A great read, great narration..

Very enlightening about the country of North Korea

In today's world of Kim Jung Un and President Trump, this book gave me great insight into the inner workings of a totalitarian government!

Revealing

I did not know much about North Korea before reading this book. It is not a history, but it reveals the inner workings of a very closed and mysterious world. It is told very well, and is as entertaining as it is informative.

Fascinating and interesting book!

Great book! I highly recommend it, especially to those interested in North Korea. Fascinating and couldn't stop listening!

Amazing!

such a great book! non fiction but written in a litterary fashion. the story is amazing as is the narrator. it will have you in the edge of your seat. the book provides a window into North Korea.

Compelling and imformative

This book is great. It reads like an exciting fiction book but contains more information than a history textbook. Awesome.

Compelling and heart wrenching...

I had to remind myself that this was not a fictional story as it was read to me.