Environment, Politics and Ideology in North Korea: Landscape as Political Project (Book Review)

nvironment, Politics, an ! eology in orth .area:

Lan scape as o "cal roject Robert Wlnstanley-Chesters Lanham, MD Lexmgton Books, 2015 xvm and 103 pp, notes, blbhography, index $85 00 cloth (ISBN 978-0-7391-87777-7), $36 00 electronic (ISBN 978-07391-8778-4)

fests to the world as contemporary North Korea.

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Wmstanley-Chesters is a human geographer writing about the historic role of ideology in shaping North Korea as a utopian landscape. I am also a human geographer with demonstrated research and teaching interests in cultural landscape, charisma, ideology,

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Reviewed by Dawd J Nemeth, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toledo,

/ ENVIRONMENT, POLITICS,

and philosophy and methodology in

geography. In addition, I am a Koreanlst to boot (one that is obsessively "on North Korea watch"). My review IAII[IS[At'ÿ ÿ.S POtlll(/ÿt PROlt(! is aimed at fellow academic geograEnwronment, Polmcs, and Ideology m phers who might, like me, be attuned / ROBERT WINSTANLEY CHESTERS North Korea could very well become a to advances m the environmental humanities and fascinated by those landmark geographical publication in the environmental humanities. Stimufrequent saber-ratthng histrionics of latmg ideas and approaches of two well-known British North Korean charismatic leadership This leadership "new" cultural geographers, Denis Cosgrove (social for- style engages their public in a redundant and cyclic Juchÿ ideological narrative that has increasingly prloritized a marion and symbohc landscape) and Noel Castree (social nature), have clearly inspired and reformed Robert core role for the military in North Korean development Winstanley.Chesters, the author of this volume. For the initiatives, reproducing North Korea as a "place of lived purposes of my review, I compress their like-minded and utopian fulfillment." complementary theoretical trailblazing on geographical relations between cultural and nature to this notion: A I guessed there might be an audience for this book the innatural environment manifesting as visible landscape can stant I was invited to review it and as I contemplated the be critically engaged as both "ideological concept" and myriad promises and possibilities inherent in ItS lengthy "social constl uctlon." title. Not being forewarned of the actual length of the book in my invitatmn to review it, I might be forgiven for Wlnstanley-Chesters carries forward beyond Cosgrove expecting to receive a massive tome in the mail. When the package containing Enwronrnent, Pohtics, and Ideology and Castree in Enwronment, Pohtics, and Ideology in North Korea to further enrich and elaborate on their in North Korea arrived promptly m my campus mailbox, contributions by offering several innovative approaches It seemed so small I was lmtlally suspicious that I might have been sent the wrong book to review! But no: After and a refreshing case study apphcauon of his own. Specifically, he mfortns his readers about the intellectual gingerly unwrapping its mailing envelope (just in case I history of, and cultural pohtics related to, numerous might be recychng it as a return mailer) I discovered this charlsiaatic and utopian development narratives that to be the real deal--although smallish in size. I began to have shaped and continue to shape the widely misunder- flip through its pages as I walked back to my office in eager anticipation of donning once again my reviewer's hat. stood humamzed environmental landscape that mare-

Toledo, OH.

AND IDEOLOGY IN NORTH KOREA

The AAG Rewew of Books 5(2) 2017, pp 109-111 dol 10 1080/2325548X 2017 1292584 @2017 by American Association of Geographers Pubhshed by Taylor & Francis, LLC

This book had me hooked on page one with ItS surreal introductory anecdote about a family of bears in mournmg encountered by a group of North Korean coal miners along a forested highway on the day of"Dear Leader" Kim Jong II's death in December 2011. I would soon turn the page to learn that this schmaltzy and disarming bear story was part of a profound North Korean development narrative and not just a folksy anecdote. It seems a bit of pure luck and a rare tribute to the writer's craft that an academic book as brief and compact as Environment, Politics, and Ideology m North Korea can be creatively engineered to remain afloat while also weighed down with a title heavily freighted with vague and contested cross-disclplinaW topics, terms, and concepts in-

cluding "environment," "politics," "Ideology," "North Korea," "landscape," and (again) "pohtical"--this time as a modifier for "project." Yet float it does; impressively, I think. I am pleased to recommended the bookÿalbmt with a few reservations--for reading by my academic cob leagues.

The volume initially impressed me, yes, but frankly I was expecting the worst and morbidly curious all durmg my review experience while searching to discover how Wlnstanley-Chesters could even begin to systematically introduce, then successfully integrate, so many provoca-

tive topics Into an Intellectually satisfying book In the space of only five chapters comprising eighty-five pages (exclusive of front matter and back matter) ! It took some laudable Innovative perspicacity for Wlnstanley-Chesters to pull this off, so I tip my revlewer's hat to him. I usually turn directly to browsing the bibliography when picking up a new academic book either to read for my own pleasure or when Initiating a book review The bibliography of Enwronment, Polmcs, and Ideology m North Korea, at nearly 400 English-language entries, has at its core several key entries that comprise North Korea's geographic and Ideological environmental narratives, emphasizing those that address the developmental fields of tidal lecla-

Wlnstanley-Chesters forefronts two political landscapebuilding projects involving forestry and land-reclamation development that invoke a familiar Institutional lexicon and vocabulary to Inspire and Instill recent generations of North Koreans with the quasi-religious notion that that they have inherited and now inhabit a shared, singular, and self-reliant "lived" utopia Chapter 1 establishes that nature is a heroin participant m utopian North Korean landscape building. Klm I1 Sung's Juchÿ ideology theorizes North Korea as "a place of lived utopian fulfillment" as described in chapter 2. Chapters 3 and 4 describe in fair detail and cogently how charismatic institutional narratology builds Its landscapes of "lived" utopia, In part through deforestation or afforestation and tideland reclamation projects. These pro3ects advance as vigorous speed (Cholllma "Flying Horse"-hke) campaigns in the manner of military operations, following the charismatic "on the spot guidance" of North Korea's "Great Leader" Kim I1 Sung and (after 1994) his son, "Dear Leader" Kim Jong I1 and (afteI 2011) his son "Supreme Leader" Klm Jong Un. Wlnstanley-Chesters discusses how the early stages of the North Korean charlsmauc nation-braiding strategy are rooted in Russian Soviet and Chinese Communist precedents. By the time I had read the concluding chapter of Environment, Polmcs, and Ideology m North Korea I felt Wmstanley-Chesters had convincingly demonstrated to me through his efforts that developmental narratives and narratology of North Korea have been an underresearched field of analysis and study that he has successfully begun to remedy with the publication of this book. For example, chapter 4 describes a fundamental nationbuilding chansmatm narrative by North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, subsequently perpetuated and entrenched as

populm ideology by his son General Klm Jong I1, called Songun Politics ("military first"). This narrative empowers the military In North Korea with the primary responslbihnes for building the natural landscape of a lived utoDa and for protecting that landscape's charlsmatm and political integrity.

matron and forestry or afforestation.

In particular, Winstanley.Chesters focuses in on Klm I1 Sung's (1964) "Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country" as "a piece of acutely coherent and systematic writing and thinking" (p. xw) that reveals clrculality and cychcity In charismatic historical developmental narratwes during an otherwise opaque and confusing (to outsiders) Three Kim Dynasty that continues to strive to reproduce the natural landscape of North Korea as a "lived" utopia.

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Although a brief book, parts proved tedious reading, given the recounting of rigidity and redundancy of the rulers' almost farcical proposals and projects. For example, it offered me some unprecedented insight into a tragic event that occurred in the demilitarized zone in 1976 that in my opinion had always been explained away with unsatisfying cursory conclusions. The author does not directly address this particular event, but has clarified it for me In a generalizable and indirect way. This tragic event was the so-called axe murders, a seemingly spontaneous and

THE AAG REVIEW OF BOOKS

unprovoked brutal butchering of two U.S. soldiers while they were supervising a team of South Korean tree-trim-

mers at work in the Joint Security Area I am now better reformed to consider the event in the context of the charismatic afforestation narrative introduced in chapter 4. The North Korean officer who ordered the attack claimed that defending the tree while it was undergoing U.S. assault was justified because it had been planted by North Korea's Klm I1 Sung. This explanation does not condone their actions outside of a North Kolean geopsychology, but it does suggest that those North Korean soldiers wielding the deadly axes were reacting "under the

influence" of Klmllsungism (Juchÿ ideology). Although I cannot recommend this book as "reader-

that emerged in South Korea during the tumultuous 1980s. Sadly, I cannot with good conscience recommend this book for purchase by graduate students or contingent faculty on tight budgets. As comprehensive as the book's bibliography is, I could

not find within it Kim I1Sung's (1983) On the Korean People's Struggle to Apply the Juch( Idea. This seems a shame, because its charismatic political narrative begins with another bear anecdote. The reoccurrence of this bear motif in the redundant body of Kim II Sung's institutional lexicon validates Wmstanley-Chesters's discovery that there is a deliberate circularity and cychclty in Nolth Korea's charismatic developmental narratives about nature and the environment worthy of future academic study.

friendly," and the prose in places is appropriately opaque

(given the subject is North Korea), I did benefit from the experience and learned quite a bit. Some carefully chosen visuals inserted to accompany difficult passages in strategic places in the book might have helped readers. Also, if ever a geography book deserved a few maps it is this one! Enwronment, Politics, and Ideology m North Korea is blessed with one powerful thematic image--Its cover art; a dreamy hno-cut print of iconic Mt. Paekdu. It reminds me very much of minjung mlsul student political artwork

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References Klm, I. S. 1964 Theses on the sociahst rural question in our country, Works 18, Pyongyang, KP: Foreign Languages Publishing House. --. 1983. On the Korean people's struggle to apply the Juchd idea: Talks to the delegation of American Popular Revolutionary Alhance of Peru, June 30 and

July 1 and 5, 1983. Pyongyang, KP: Foreign Languages Publication House.

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