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North Korea: State of Paranoia, by Paul French (Zed Books, £9.99)

by Kenny Coyle

HAVING read Paul French’s North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula, published a decade ago, I was looking forward to a greatly updated version and even an answer as to why there had been a change in title.

Unfortunately, this version is approximately 90 per cent the same as its predecessor, with entire chapters repeated virtually verbatim. Only a foreword and concluding chapter constitute any genuinely new material.

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