Description

The wild story of a college activists highstakes attempt to topple the North Korean regime and change the world

In the early 2000s Adrian Hong was a softspoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea he realized he had found a cause so pressing that he was ready to devote his life to it What began as a trip down the safe and wellworn path of organizing soon morphed into something more dangerous Hong journeyed to China outwitting Chinese security services as he helped ferry asylumseeking North Korean escapees to safety

Meanwhile Hongs secret organization Cheollima Civil Defense later renamed Free Joseon began tracking the North Korean governments activities and its volatile thirdgeneration ruler Kim Jong Un Free Joseon targeted North Korean diplomats who might be persuaded to defect while drawing up plans for a governmentinexile After the shocking broaddaylight assassination in 2017 of Kim Jong Nam the dictators older brother Hong along with Marine veteran Christopher Ahn helped ferry Nams family to safety Then Hong took the group a step further He initiated a series of highstakes direct actions culminating in an armed raid at the North Korean embassy in Madridan act that would put Ahn behind bars and turn Hong into one of the worlds most unlikely fugitives

In the tradition of Jon Krakauers Into the Wild The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quoto instead live boldly by his principles Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Bradley Hopewho broke numerous details of Hongs operations in The Wall Street Journalnow reveals the full contours of this remarkable story of idealism and insanity hubris and heroism all set within the secret battle for the future of the worlds most mysterious and unsettling nation

A propulsive investigation into the wild adventures of a man determined to bring down the North Korean regime Deeply reported and novelistic I flew through it Ed Caesar author of The Moth and the Mountain

The engrossing inside story of two recent events that are jaw dropping even for North Korea and the obsessive man behind them A terrific piece of upclose reportage that reads like a spy thriller but is all too real Anna Fifield author of The Great Successor The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un

P 2022 Penguin Audio