num_pages: 210
description: North Korea and South Korea are never far from the news headlines - one for the alleged danger it poses to the world, the other for its apparent capitalist success story. In Bipolar Orders, Hyung Gu Lynn analyzes the continuities and processes driving both countries since the 1980s. North Korea has experienced severe economic deterioration and increasing international isolation, while South Korea has undergone democratization and witnessed the emergence of a vibrant consumer culture. Paradoxically, this growing gap in ideologies and material standards has led to improved relations between the two countries. Why has this counterintuitive development occurred? Is North Korea really a threat, and if so, for whom? Amidst the recent tendency to repackage the last embers of the Cold War as a potential frontline for the "war on terror," this book provides a substantive, accessible, and timely examination of the complex and compelling histories of the two Koreas.
language: English
title: Bipolar Orders: The Two Koreas since 1989
titlecomplete: Bipolar Orders: The Two Koreas since 1989 (Global History of the Present)
ratings_count: 7
publisher: Fernwood Publishing and Zed Books Ltd.