Book review: A deep dive into the obscure world of North Korean animation | NK News
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December 21, 2024
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Book review: A deep dive into the obscure world of North Korean animation

In ‘The Complete Encyclopaedia of North Korean Anime,’ a Japanese IT worker explores seven decades of DPRK cartoons
Stephen Mercado December 26, 2023
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Book review: A deep dive into the obscure world of North Korean animation
A scene from the North Korean animated series "Clever Racoon Dog" | Image: KCTV (Sept. 9, 2022)

The Japanese publisher Publit specializes in books about subcultures, debuting in 2015 with a voluming on death metal in Sub-Saharan Africa and following that up with a 2019 work on animation in South Korea.

And in its latest release in August this year, the company takes a deep dive into an obscure corner of one of the world’s most secretive countries — the animation industry of the DPRK.

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About the Author

Stephen Mercado

Stephen Mercado

Stephen Mercado is a retired officer of the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise (originally the Foreign Broadcast Information Service). A researcher primarily interested in Japanese intelligence history and Asian open-source intelligence, he earned a master’s degree in international affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is the author of "The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Elite Intelligence School" (Brassey’s, 2002), several articles and a few dozen book reviews.

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