Hungry for Peace: International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Change in North Korea.

HUNGRY FOR PEACE: International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Change in North Korea. By Hazel Smith. Washington (DC): United States Institute of Peace Press. 2005. xix, 368 pp. (Map.) $45.00, cloth, 1-029223-59-5; $19.95, paper, ISBN 1-929223-58-7.

Hungry for Peace has much to offer but falls short of author Hazel Smith's goal of contributing to "improved understanding of the DPRK so as to find feasible alternatives to war" (p. 4). Her goal is a daunting task for anyone, especially with limited knowledge of the subject. Smith teaches international relations at the University of Warwick and received her academic training in European international relations. She and others apparently assumed that her year of work with United Nations agencies in North Korea qualified her as a "North Korea" expert. But North Korea and its related issues are more complex than what transpires in Pyongyang. A year of research in Washington, DC made this apparent to the author, because she devotes one-quarter of her book to evaluating the shortcomings of "Western" policymakers and analysts. This makes for interesting reading but distracts from her primary goal.

Eventually Smith shifts to assessing Kim Il Sung's rule, the food crisis of the 1990s, the international humanitarian response to it, and the extent to which the international community's effort transformed North Korea. The long litany of issues necessitates an elevated level of generalization.

Smith's characterization of North Korea under Kim Il Sung is often superficial or inaccurate. Kim is said to have "achieved political legitimacy through his acknowledged leadership of nation building in a new state" (p. 47). We are left to ponder how he accomplished this and its consequences. Smith's depiction of Kim's domain is inconsistent. Kim is said to have "institutionalized civilian-military relations" so as to "divorce the military from political power" (p. 52). While true long ago, North Korea is not stagnant and today the military plays a central role in politics and policy. Smith writes that "[h]ealth-care facilities and services were made universal and free" (p. 53), but later she declares that they are woefully inadequate.

The discussion of agricultural production's collapse in the 1990's is marred. Nature more than Pyongyang's policies are blamed: "Economic decline provided the context" for the country's inability to feed its people, but the "proximate cause was the natural disasters of the mid-1990s" (p. 66). Smith should have read Andrew Natios' US Institute of Peace study, The Great North Korean Famine, a source the author fails to mention.

Smith's core premise is that the 1990's international humanitarian effort transformed North Korea. She claims the economy was "marketized" and "dollarized." But in the 1960's Kim Il Sung sanctioned markets during food shortages. Smith assumes change is irreversible. Markets did expand in size and number, but since 2004 their number has been reduced and central control restored. North Korea has long maintained a dual currency system prior to "dollarization." "Foreign currency certificates" backed by "hard currency" enabled foreigners and indigenous elites to purchase imported commodities. All others used the "people's" currency. Now euros have replaced the certificates and dollars, and "people's" currency is still in circulation.

Smith also claims that international aid transformed North Korea's dealings with the world. Actually, the engagement of Japan, Western Europe, South Korea and the United States followed the Soviet Union's and communism's demise in 1990, China's economic reforms, and North Korea's 1991 entry into the United Nations. Food aid did not arrive until late in 1995.

One of the book's more bizarre features is Smith's groundless and unfair claims about an unnamed former US government official who later worked in Pyongyang as an NGO representative. She falsely claims that he discredited the American NGO effort in North Korea.

Smith is to be commended for her effort and insight. Her book confirms the difficulty and the extent of time and effort needed to decipher North Korea before one can claim to be a "North Korea expert."

C. KENNETH QUINONES

Akita International University, Japan