A concise, foundational history of North Korea from the the 1950s to 1990s.

What kind of lifestyle have the Kim leaders lived, and how do they pull it off? How did North Korea do economically after the Korean War? What is the Songbun caste system and how did it affect all lives in North Korea? What is Juche and why did Kim Il Sung believe in it? Why did the economy collapse in the late 1980s? How did widespread famine affect nearly every person in North Korea? We learn the answers to these questions and more in this episode.

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Sources used in the making of this episode: Source List

Transcript for this episode.

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Sendung 19:30 Uhr vom 25.6.2025