Elizabeth Shim is perhaps the most well-informed U.S. reporter on Korean politics, international relations, and media. Drawing upon her extensive knowledge and depth of insight, her book North Korea's Nuclear Cinema seamlessly weaves together modern North Korean history, international relations and politics, North Korean film history, and film interpretation. Its ambition sets it apart in the small but growing corpus of scholarship on North Korean cinema. Written in readable prose, the book is accessible to lay readers, who have interests in the reclusive nation, yet it has the requisite historical and theoretical depth to be relevant to Koreanists and to film historians.

David C. Oh, Editor of "Mediating the South Korean Other: Representations and Discourses of Difference in the Post/Neocolonial Nation-State"

Film, media and other forms of visual communication are central to life in the 20th and 21st centuries. Yet, they have rarely been explored in the context of North Korea's domestic politics and society as well as its foreign policy. In this intriguing book, Elizabeth Shim explains the many ways in which North Korea's regime uses and is influenced by its own visual narratives, as well as the importance of South Korean globally recognised culture in shaping both North Korean society and the country's leadership. This is recommended reading for anyone with an interest in the intersection of visual communication and North Korea and global politics.

Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Professor of International Relations at King's College London

A brilliant study of the role of media, technology, and propaganda in the shaping of modern North Korea. Shim's book puts North Korea's image and national identity at the forefront of the nation's behavior and asks questions about what that means for an increasingly interconnected future. As the world grapples with issues of propaganda and reality, North Korea's Nuclear Cinema offers lessons for students and policymakers alike.

Mitch Lerner, Director of the East Asian Studies Center, The Ohio State University