From Library Journal
Oberdorfer first toured Korea in 1953 courtesy of the U.S. Army and returned often on the Asia beat for the Washington Post. In the present volume, his accounts of the conflicts of the last 20 years, appraisals of leaders based on interviews in Korea, Japan, Washington, and Moscow, and incisive policy analysis form a detailed and insightful history of North and South Korean politics and U.S. policy. Particularly engrossing is the analysis of relations between Moscow and Washington and their defiant clients, which turned domestic rifts into world conflict from the 1950s through the potentially nuclear crisis of 1994 and the present famine. The obvious comparison is with Bruce Cumings's commanding Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History (LJ 2/15/97). Cumings analyzes the evolution and nature of Korea's political economy over the last few centuries. Oberdorfer brings to life the events, leaders, and decisions of the last 20 years. Larger public and academic collections will want both volumes.?Charles Hayford, Evanston, Ill.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Arnold R. Isaacs
In The Two Koreas, Oberdorfer has drawn on extensive interviews, his own past reporting and a careful search of documentary material that has become available in South Korea and elsewhere--including records opened up by the post-Communist governments in Russia and East Germany. From this material he constructs a lucid, balanced, thoroughly credible account of the last 25 years on both sides of the armistice line ...


Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Bruce Cumings
The Two Koreas, Don Oberdorfer's fine book covering the last quarter-century of Korean history, contains the only detailed account of the frightening 1994 crisis over North Korea's nuclear program. Based on inside information that Oberdorfer garnered from interviews conducted with key officials in Washington and around the world, his gripping narrative should chasten our leaders and inform our citizenry about the continuing perils and costs of America's involvement with Korea, which began 52 years ago when American troops marched into Seoul amid the ashes of Imperial Japan's defeat. But The Two Koreas does much more than that: At a time when frivolous sensationalism dominates the media, it illustrates the virtues of a life given to honest, independent and inquiring journalism.


From Kirkus Reviews
An old Asia hand offers a briefing that's more notable for the breadth than for the depth with which it addresses the issues still dividing North from South Korea. Oberdorfer (The Turn, 1991, etc.) starts his narrative in 1972, the first time that Pyongyang representatives had openly visited Seoul since the peninsular country was partitioned in the wake of WW II, and then reviews the ongoing negotiations on reunification. The author (a former Far East correspondent for the Washington Post) goes on to detail the South's blood-sport approach to politics at a time when the continued presence of Kim Il Sung lent the North a measure of stability. By way of example, the KCIA gunned down Park Chung Hee, opening the way for Chun Do Hwan. Following deadly riots in 1987, another would-be strongman, Roh Tae Woo, bested reformers Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam for the presidency, leaving him to oversee the 1988 Olympiad successfully staged in Seoul. In the meantime, Beijing gave Seoul a jolt, following Moscow's lead and establishing diplomatic relations with South Korea. Shortly before the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's founding father died in mid-1994, the wider world and Washington became gravely concerned about the Red state's nuclear capabilities. Jimmy Carter helped avert a full-blown crisis, however, and Kim's son (Kim Jong Il), who inherited an economy on the rocks, is coping as best he can with famine and a host of other daunting internal problems. Yet the impoverished North continues its efforts to subvert the flourishing South. Even so, Oberdorfer is reluctant to predict whether, let alone when, the two Koreas will be reunited. Indeed, he exits on the breezy note that there's no telling what may happen in a country so full of surprises. A fine overview of Korea's recent past, which will leave most readers frustrated by its lack of analysis on what might lie ahead for this divided nation. (b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



"This truly important work will, without question, become the standard against which other books on modern Korea will be judged."



"Oberdorfer is one of America's keenest analysts of the international scene."


Book Description
A new edition of the definitive overview of contemporary Korean history, updated with new material to account for recent, dramatic events. Don Oberdorfer has written a gripping narrative history of Korea's travails and triumphs over the past three decades. The Two Koreas places the tensions between North and South within a historical context, with a special emphasis on the involvement of outside powers.


About the Author
Don Oberdorfer wrote for the Washington Post for twenty-five years. He was a National Book Award finalist for Tet! The Turning Point in the Vietnam War and holds a Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton for public service. He is currently a resident scholar at Johns Hopkins University Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He lives in Washington, D.C.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this gripping narrative history of Korea's travails and triumphs over the past thirty years, Don Oberdorfer places the tensions between North and South in historical context, with special emphasis on the role of outside powers.

SYNOPSIS

Veteran journalist and contemporary historian Oberdorfer (international studies, Johns Hopkins U.) updates his 1997 account of how the two halves of the ancient and homogeneous people, thoughtlessly divided at the end of World War II, have grappled with each other for advantage and supremacy and dealt with the powerful forces all around them.

Annotation © Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Los Angeles Times

At a time when frivolous sensationalism dominates the media, it illustrates the virtues of a life given to honest, independent, inquiring journalism.

Donald P. Gregg

This truly important work will, without question, become the standard against which other books on modern Korea will be judged.

Carter J. Eckert

Combining the depth and authority of a first-rate textbook with the readability of a good novel, it has proven to be a wonderful teaching tool for instructors and students alike.

James A. Baker