Kim's Game (Innbundet)

About the Korean who disappeared in Sørkedalen and the power game which followed.

Author:

Sun Heidi Sæbø

Norwegian title: Kims lek
Norwegian subtitle: En diktator, et splittet land og en forsvinningssak i Sørkedalen
Author:
Binding: Innbundet
Year: 2015
Pages: 208
Publisher: Cappelen Damm
Språk: Bokmål
ISBN/EAN: 9788202479701
Kategori: Narrative Non-fiction
Overview Kims lek

At Easter 1979 a bag was found on a 169 bus after it had reached its terminus at Sørkedalen outside Oslo. When the driver opened it he found a string vest, a camera, a written and stamped postcard and a passport belonging to a South Korean called Koh Sang-Moon. The driver handed the bag in to the lost property office at Oslo police station, and the case remained unsolved until Sang-Moon inexplicably reappeared several months later on North Korean television propaganda as a defector. After the end of the Korean War, the kidnapping of South Koreans abroad became one of North Korea's most important propaganda weapons against the West.

In Kim's Games, journalist Sun Heidi Sæbø follows up the story of the student who brought the major political game between North and South Korea to the little land of Norway. She tracks down Sang-moon's daughter at her home in Seoul and discovers that she has still not given up hope of getting her father back.

Sæbø interviews surviving participants in the affair and delves into embassy archives. Last but not least, she speaks with a South Korean who took what to us seems an incomprehensible decision, choosing to leave South Korea for the North. Was it really unthinkable that Koh Sang-Moon moved voluntarily?

PRESSCUTTINGS:
‘A brilliant introduction to the history and utterly unique psychology of the hermit state. The book is obligatory reading for both novices and experts with an interest in the almost absurd existence of the totalitarian monarchy created by the Kim dynasty, with a hybrid ideology quite unlike anything we have seen before.’
MINERVA

‘… An enthralling real-life thriller crammed full of amazing events and shocking stories about North Korea, its diplomats and its autocratic leaders, and about the communist beacon’s attraction for young left-wing radicals. … Kim’s Game is the very best kind of high political page-turner. … a well-documented and exciting thriller drawn from the bizarre reality of the Cold War.’
DAGBLADET

‘Easy to read, instructive, exciting.’
DAGSAVISEN

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More books by Sun Heidi Sæbø:

  • KIM JONG-UN

    Et skyggeportrett av en diktator

    Sun Heidi Sæbø

    Innbundet
Reviews Kims lek

[…] En fengslende thriller fra virkeligheten spekket med forunderlige hendelser og rystende historier om Nord-Korea, dets diplomater og eneveldige ledere, og om det kommunistiske fyrtårnets dragning på unge venstreradikale. […] Kims lek er en storpolitisk pageturner av beste sort. […] en veldokumentert og spennende thriller fra den kalde krigens bisarre virkelighet.

 
Marius Wulfsberg, Dagbladet

"Lettlest, lærerik, spennende."

Gerd Elin Sandve, Dagsavisen

"Kims Lek er obligatorisk lesing for alle som er interessert i den koreanske halvøyas historie og Kim-dynastiets absurde beskaffenhet.
[...] Dagbladjournalist Sun Heidi Sæbø har skrevet en høyst leseverdig bok om Nord-Korea til terningkast fem. Bokens fremste styrke ligger utvilsomt i at den er både lettlest og grundig."

Bård Larsen, Minervanett

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Author Sun Heidi Sæbø

Sun Heidi Sæbø (b. 1980) is a journalist and former Asia correspondent for the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. She has published three narrative non-fiction books; Kims Game (2015), Kim Jong-un - A Shadow Portrait (2018) and China - The new Super power (2019).

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