Marcus Noland Launches New Book on North Korean Famine

Until now, my main reference has been Andrew Natsios’s “The Great North Korean Famine,” because Natsios’s personal experience inside North Korea added so much to his observations, but Noland is almost in his own category for sheer quality and rigor of research. 

Noland is also the outlier for the low numbers he cites for the death toll from the famine — 600,000 to 1 million, as opposed to 2 to 2.5 million — and I’ve always wanted to know how he arrived at his figures and whether they include deaths from opportunistic disease and other related causes.  Natsios bases his on a combination of county census figures, refugee interviews, and data from defectors such as Hwang Jang Yop, all sources that build in their own inaccuracies.  For plenty of reasons, Noland’s book, “Famine in North Korea,” is the new must-read, although Noland’s writing, which sometimes presupposes a post-graduate education in economics, can cause mild cerebral dessication if not taken in modest doses. 

I’ve uploaded the promo leaflet, with order form, at left; click to enlarge it.  Hopefully, I’ll have a review in the near future.