This book mostly contains pictures taken in 2011, 2013 and 2014 with telephoto lenses across the border of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from vantage points in China. The frustration of not knowing what is happening in the DPRK is exacerbated by the regime's recent nuclear tests and experiments with intercontinental ballistic missiles. Then there are the economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the United States. Everyone wants to know whether the sanctions are likely to cause the DPRK leadership to denuclearize and abandon missile tests. These pictures can be viewed and analysed for signs that could tell whether economic sanctions are or are not working. Some clues about the extent of economic decline can be obtained from pictures taken across the Yalu River which forms the border in Dandong. Then further up the river pictures of a housing estate give us further clues. Watch towers along the border indicate repression of a population eager to escape. Then the book contains maps showing the extremely small distances separating some North Korean islands in the Yalu River from China. The possibility that thousands of escapees are already living in China and that more will soon follow is analyzed. Twenty five kilometres further upstream the Ming Dynasty Great Wall, which reaches a height of 163 metres, allows the curious visitor to look down on a North Korean collective farm and see farm workers toiling in the fields. A walk along the side of a cliff face at Tiger Mountain gives the photographer views across a narrow channel of the Yalu River. There Korean soldiers can be seen marching through the fields where exhausted farm workers are tilling the soil. Farm animals pull carts for farmers next to the border fence which has collapsed in places. We also see a farming village with houses and farm buildings. Although these scenes can be interpreted in different ways, they give a much better understanding of North Korea than the rhetoric coming out of the White House. Then there are pictures of Mount Paektu, known as Changbai Shan in Chinese, which holds a volcanic lake divided almost equally between Korea and China. This is the sacred mountain which North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un claims to have climbed and pictures in the book will suggest the truth or otherwise of this claim. Further to the north we come to the Tumen River border. It is here that Russia imposed the unequal treaties on China in 1860 resulting in loss of China's access to the Sea of Japan and the loss of ten percent of China's territory. Consequently China now has to export the produce from Jilin Province through the Korean Port of Rason. Chinese and Russian investments in Rason are examined to determine whether they will be affected by sanctions. Pictures of the Tumen River are accompanied by an analysis of political and economic factors in assessing the potential for large numbers of refugees to flee into China. The book also contains pictures of warning signs threatening severe punishment of border crossers and signs pleading with tourists to avoid cross border communications. The author, who has lived in China for eight years, hopes that in looking through more than 80 pages of colour photographs and maps the reader will get additional information and clues about what to expect in America's dealings with North Korea.
About the Author: I was born in Australia in 1941. As a young man I worked in clerical positions in government departments but found these jobs routine and unchallenging. I studied Spanish and German and then travelled extensively in Western Europe crossing into Soviet occupied Berlin and climbing a mountain in Norway to view the midnight sun. These and many other travel experiences opened my eyes to the wider world and gave me a broader perspective than that available in the geographical remoteness of Australia. On returning to Australia I found employment in the Australian National University Library. There I came in contact with many Asian people who worked in or frequented the university's Oriental Library and I developed an interest in Chinese and Japanese civilizations. In 1969 I enrolled in the Asian Studies Faculty, first studying Indonesian and Japanese. Eventually, in early 1973, I undertook an intensive course in spoken Chinese at the University of Canberra and then studied Classical Chinese at the Australian National University. I finished my Indonesian and Asian Studies majors and studied Javanese and Arabic while completing a reading course in Dutch. Then I completed graduate diplomas in Education and Librarianship going on to major in Japanese language at the University of New South Wales. I taught Indonesian and Japanese to students from year 7 to year 12 in secondary schools. With a lifelong interest in art and photography I undertook a course in painting and drawing at the TAFE (Technical and Further Education) campus in the Sydney suburb of Campbelltown. After retiring from the New South Wales Education Department I studied the Teaching of English as a Second Language at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney. Then I taught English to newly arrived adult migrants at a college in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. At that time Hurstville was Australia's largest Chinatown and of course my students came mainly from China. This further enhanced my knowledge and appreciation of Chinese culture. While living in China I found displays in China's provincial museums to be a wonderful source of information on the ancient past. I travelled by train to most of China's provinces paying special attention to Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian temples. There I saw statues, engravings, paintings and art work which, when added to the enlightenment gained from museum visits, gave me fresh understanding of this 5000 year old civilization.