September 23, 2023
Opinion

Review: Offering red pill about North Korea, new book instead jettisons truth

While aiming to humanize North Koreans, Felix Abt’s latest presents misleading critiques of Western narratives

The stated aim of “A Land of Prison Camps, Starving Slaves and Nuclear Bombs?” (2022) is to help the reader discover how much the mainstream media and pundits have misled them about the true nature of North Korea. The basis for these claims is the seven years that the author, Felix Abt, spent living and working in the country as the CEO of PyongSu pharmaceutical company until 2009.

These experiences, the author asserts, have helped him see the dangerous disparity between life inside the country and its portrayal in Western media outlets. He alone sees this truth. Effectively, this is the reader’s chance to be red-pilled about Pyongyang.