Book Report: The Impossible State

It's a book about North Korea taught me how far to go when running a kleptocracy.

Can you starve your population, as long as you keep your army fed? Yep, you totally can. It doesn't backfire.
Is advancing a nuclear program really a good way to get appeased? Yep, you totally can. It doesn't backfire.

Pretty much every chapter of this book could have started with the sentence "But it gets worse." Prison camps, kidnapping… And other nations help to keep the system shambling on because we worry that collapse would kill even more people.

This book's a little dated. It points out that Kim Jong Un should keep an eye on his uncle; past tyrant-heirs have been deposed by uncles. Since the book has come out, Kim Jong Un had his uncle killed. Maybe he read the book. This book is dark, dark, dark. If you plan to read it, plan out some get-togethers with friends and loved ones to break up the bleakness.