The Society Kim Il Sung Built and How He Did It. Captain Kim returns home ; Way to war ; Between Moscow and Beijing: the foreign policy of Kim Il Sung's North Korea ; Dealing with the South ; The command society ; A country of camps ; The world according to Kim Il Sung ; The silver lining in a social disaster ; The birth of Juche, the rise of the son, and the slow-motion demise of a hyper-Stalinist economy.
Two Decades of Crisis. And then the world changed ; Capitalism reborn ; The state withers away ; Taking the exit option : not an exodus yet, but ; Arrival in paradise, aka capitalist hell ; Changing worldviews.
The Logic of Survival (Domestically). Reform as collective political suicide ; Putting the genie back in the bottle : (not-so-successful) crackdowns on market activity ; A disaster that almost happened : the currency reform of 2009 ; The belated rise of a "new star general" ; The sudden beginning of a new era.
Survival Diplomacy. Playing the nuclear card ; Aid-maximizing diplomacy ; Meanwhile, in South Korea
(the rise of 386ers and its consequences) ; A decade of sunshine ; The sun sets ; The entry of China.
The Contours of a Future: What Might Happen to North Korea in the Next Two Decades. Why North Korea is likely to continue for a while (but not forever) ; Contours of a coming crisis ; Stability will return, but how?
What to Do About the North? Why the sticks are not big enough ; Why the carrots are not sweet enough (and why "strategic patience" is not a great idea, either) ; Thinking long term ; The hidden benefits of engagement ; Reaching the people ; Why they matter: working with the refugees in South Korea.
Being Ready for What We Wish For. A perfect storm ; A provisional confederation as the least unacceptable solution ; Something about painkillers.
The society Kim Il Sung built and how he did it
The logic of survival (domestically)
The survival diplomacy interlude
The contours of a future: what might happen to North Korea in the next two decades
What to do about the North?
Being ready for what we wish for
