{"product_id":"the-great-leader-and-the-fighter-pilot-a-true-story-about-the-birth-of-tyranny-in-north-korea-9780143108023","title":"The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: A True Story About the Birth of Tyranny in North Korea","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBlaine Harden, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e-bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eEscape From Camp 14\u003c\/i\u003e, tells the riveting story of Kim Il Sung's rise to power and the young North Korean fighter pilot who dared to defy him. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the aftermath of World War II, Kim Il Sung plunged North Korea into war against the United States while the youngest fighter pilot in his air force was playing a high-risk game of deception--and escape. As Kim ascended from Soviet puppet to godlike ruler, No Kum Sok pretended to love his Great Leader. That is, until he swiped a Soviet MiG-15 and delivered it to the Americans, not knowing they were offering a $100,000 bounty for the warplane (the equivalent of nearly one million dollars today). The theft--just weeks after the Korean War ended in July 1953--electrified the world and incited Kim's bloody vengeance. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e During the Korean War the United States brutally carpet bombed the North, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and giving the Kim dynasty, as Harden reveals, the fact-based narrative it would use to this day to sell paranoia and hatred of Americans. Drawing on documents from Chinese and Russian archives about the roles of Mao and Stalin in Kim's shadowy rise, as well as from never-before-released U.S. intelligence and interrogation files, Harden gives us a heart-pounding adventure and an entirely new way to understand the world's longest-lasting totalitarian state.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBlaine Harden \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of \u003ci\u003eAfrica: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eA River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eEscape from Camp 14\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eAfrica \u003c\/i\u003ewon a PEN American Center citation for first book of nonfiction. \u003ci\u003eEscape from Camp 14 \u003c\/i\u003ewas both a\u003ci\u003e New York Times \u003c\/i\u003eand an international bestseller published in twenty-seven languages. Harden lives in Seattle.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51183137849618,"sku":"9780143108023","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1bc94e44-5f82-4165-aa24-14568817f1b9.jpg?v=1744455373","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-great-leader-and-the-fighter-pilot-a-true-story-about-the-birth-of-tyranny-in-north-korea-9780143108023","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}