Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers an in-depth portraits of North Korea's ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Lifting Pyongyang's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book takes readers inside a society that to a Westerner may appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from infancy to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of despots.

To North Koreans, the Kims have been more than just leaders. As a youthful church organist, Kim Il-sung learned the tricks that would elevate him, decades later, to deity status. The god-king's perks include a harem. When Kim Jong-il's concubines reach their early twenties, they retire and are given husbands who may not know about the women's pasts. Kim is reported to play the go-between role himself in arranging some of their marriages; whoever complains goes to prison.

This fascinating, comprehensive work of history and reportage takes advantage of source material that has only recently become available (some from archives in Moscow and Beijing) to bring the reader up to date on the tensions of today. The regime that the Kim dynasty built remains technically at war with the Unites States - and an “Axis of Evil” member - more than half a century after the Korean War armistice. Defectors say Kim Jong-il has, besides nuclear bombs, enough chemical weapons to wipe out the entire population of South Korea. Under the circumstances, the author cautions, negotiation is far more promising than the highly risky alternative of forcible regime change.

More than a decade in the making, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader for years to come will define a Spartan, stubbornly enigmatic society.