North Korea: Yesterday and Today

Methodology and Conclusions

In «North Korea: Yesterday and Today», Andrei Lankov appears not only as a keen expert on Korean history but also as an attentive researcher, sensitively capturing the nuances of life behind closed borders. His methodology combines in-depth analysis of archival documents, personal observations, interviews with defectors, and rare eyewitness accounts, allowing the author to penetrate to the very core of North Korean society. Lankov skillfully blends historical retrospection with a vivid analysis of the present, constructing a complex mosaic of facts, destinies, and trends. In his conclusions, he avoids one-sided judgments, inviting the reader to see North Korea not as a caricature of propaganda, but as a complex, contradictory organism where fear and hope, tradition and change coexist. The author concludes that the resilience of the North Korean regime is explained not only by harsh dictatorship but also by a unique social fabric woven from historical traumas, collective memory, and specific survival mechanisms. Lankov emphasizes: to understand North Korea, one must abandon stereotypes and try to hear the voices of those who live on the other side of the demarcation line.